Category: Wildlife
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Grizzlies, Cubs, and Tracks
While taking the East Fork Transit Buses from Teklanika Campground, my parents and I saw 5 or 6 grizzly bears. We had gone hiking at Tattlers Creek our second day, not knowing what we would see there 2 days later. In retrospect the bear prints on the side of the road were a clue! We…
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Wolf
While C continued working an 18 day stretch, my parents and I spent 3 nights at Teklanika Campground in Denali National Park. We saw all of the big 5! While I hope to write a couple posts on our Teklanika stay, I will start with the wolf on our last day. With only 90ish wolves…
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Surprise
These are the first baby moose that we have seen from the house. This mother is relatively small. I wonder if she is a two year old, though rather impressive to have twins if she is that young. In the Park later in the day I saw another moose, a caribou, 3 baby mew gulls,…
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Wildlife Babies IV, Week 17 in Healy
On the road near home we saw a Ptarmigan and 5 chicks. We think it was a Ptarmigan as the adult clearly had feathered feet. The mother was not happy to have chicks on both sides of the road. They would run or fly from one side to the other, but didn’t seem interested in…
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Arctic Ground Squirrels
I saw about 20 Arctic Ground Squirrels on Savage Alpine Trail. I often see them on Savage Loop Trail as well. I sometimes heard their alarm call before I saw them. Then I would often see one perched on a rock calling out a warning. In the Savage area of Denali National Park the Arctic…
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Persistence, Week 16 in Healy
We have done a lot of fishing so far in 2023 to catch four fish and keep two! We have fished in ice and in mosquitoes. We have fished raging rivers, tiny streams, ponds and lakes. We fished near the Arctic Circle and down on the Kenai Peninsula. If all that mattered were fish to…
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Cousins on the Kenai, Week 16 in Alaska
We had a great time with our cousins on the second half of our long weekend off. The weather was gorgeous and they took us out on the Kenai River in their boat. It was a lovely time! C caught a dolly varden and I caught a trout. Between the 4 of us we caught…
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Potholes and Mosquitoes, Week 15 in Healy
Alaska is not all sunshine, rainbows and wildlife. At times the wildlife hides. There are a lot of potholes and frost heaves on Alaska roads. And there are even more mosquitoes than potholes. If we had caught even one fish last weekend this post might have a different title. When C found out at 9:30…
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Utqiagvik, Part 4
We didn’t see any live whales due to the ice. Once it melts they see bowhead, grey, orca and beluga whales. Residents showed us photos they had taken on their phones, some right from town. The pressure ridges in the ice grew during our 47 hours in town. The “pyramid” in the photo is just…
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Utqiagvik, Part 2 Polar Bears
We hoped we would see polar bears, but knew it was unlikely. They are occasionally seen near town, but if they get close are hazed aggressively to give them a healthy fear of town. By midnight before our flight out we had tried twice to get a ride to Point Barrow, learning that the road…
Me & C 