Alaska Journeys - Byers Lake

Wow, keeping up a blog post every day is not going to be easy.   Lots to do at home after being gone for a couple weeks, including fixing the hot water heater and ordering a new microwave.  Home ownership is getting in the way of my photography hobby.   And, it's only the second day of my blog series.   Further home repairs will have to wait!

The second half of our first full day in Alaska involved driving from the Trapper Creek hotspot called Wal*Mikes to the McKinley Creekside Cabins where we are to spend our second night a few miles outside the entrance to Denali National Park.   In between these two "rural boom towns" is Denali State Park.  Located adjacent to the southern border of Denali National Park, the 324,240-acre Denali State Park is the fourth largest state park in Alaska and almost half the size of Rhode Island!  We talked to people who drove right through the park and completely missed it because so much of the land along the George Parks Highway is undeveloped.   This park is not to be missed.   Anywhere else, this park would be a state's crown jewel.

We didn't get to spend a lot of time in Denali State Park but we did take a few hours out to hike the 5.3 mile loop trail around Byers Lake.

Peaceful View

Although it was still August, it was early fall in Alaska and the grasses had started to turn from green to a beautiful shade of yellow.  The Aspen and Cottonwoods had just started to turn and would continue to get prettier as we spent more time in Alaska.

Byers Lake Outflow

There are Loons Out There!

A group of kayakers paddled by shortly after we got there.  No motorized boats or float planes are allowed on the lake.  Most of the time all we could hear was the lapping of water on the shore.

The lake used to contain a sizable population of lake trout but due to over fishing the population has dwindled. We were surprised to see Salmon in the shallows around the lake shore.  The water was so clear that it was easy to see them from the lake shore trail.  Looked like one could reach down an grab one.

Sockeye Salmon

UT Mushroom

We came to realize that one of the most plentiful and prolific things growing in Alaska are mushrooms.  They were everywhere and came in many different varieties!  These two were on the trail around the lake.  If you follow this blog you'll see more photos of wild Alaska Mushrooms in future posts.

Mushrooms and Byers Lake Trail

About two thirds of the way around the lake we heard our first Loons.  Their beautiful calls were clear but we couldn't see them.  It reminded us of  Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond --"The loons! The loons! They're welcoming us back."  We later saw them far off on the lake.  These are beautiful birds with such a beautiful call.

Other sites around the lake included the Byers Cascades and Beeman's Cabin, which was built in 1959.  The cabin was probably a great place to stay at one time but it is being slowly reclaimed by the forest.

Beeman's Cabin

Cascades

Our second night was in the McKinley Creekside Cabins on Carlo Creek.   We stayed here a total of three nights and each one was different.   I'll leave the Creekside Cabin photos for a future post.

Tomorrow we head into Denali National Park and our first Bush Plane flight.

Telling a Story

Only used half my memory cards on this trip

We are home after traveling across the North America continent from Tennessee to Alaska and back.   We had a fantastic trip, logging 1,200 miles on a little Kia Sportage and learned there are only two seasons in Alaska - winter and road construction.  Given we were there for the later,  we only saw the beginnings of winter.  For most of the trip we had  some unusually good weather with a couple extremes thrown in to make it a real adventure.

I  have 2,613 photos and a handful of videos from this trip.   While that may be excessive for normal travelers,  it's not that many for outdoor or travel photographers.   I've taken many more on shorter trips.  It's still going to take a while to go through them.

I've decided to do something different this time.    My plan was to write a blog each day for the next 12 days, corresponding to the days of our adventures in Alaska.   This way I get to relive our vacation and you get to see some photos and read some stories.  The problem is I have more to share than I can cram into 12 blog posts.  It's going to take more than 12 days to relive our experiences.  Here goes with the first post....

Day  1 Wasilla to Denali

As with all my blog posts, you can click on any photo for a larger view.  

After a long day sitting in airports and on planes, our first stop was a B&B in Wasilla Alaska.   Wasilla a pretty good size city of about 9,000 people.  The town is famous for two things -- it was the home of Sarah Palin and according to one blog post, it is the location of the largest Walmart in Alaska!

Sunset View from Wasilla B&B

If you were following the news a few weeks back you may have heard about the wildfires in Alaska, and one in particular called the Willow Creek fire.  Just north of Wasilla we passed through the Willow Creek area and we saw signs of the recent fires on both sides of the George Parks Highway.  Fortunately there were no active wildfires where we were traveling and  we didn't have any problems from smoke.

Denali from George Parks Highway

Those of you older than 30 may remember the television series called Northern Exposure.  The town of Cicely from that series  is said to be patterned after the real town of Talkeetna Alaska.  A little community of about 800 people, Talkeetna is located at the confluence of three rivers, the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna.   We wandered around town a bit taking in the sights, which took all of 30 minutes.   We then wandered down to the Susitna River where we could see the Alaska Mountain Range off in the distance.   

Sustina River and Alaska Mountain Range

While we were hanging out at the river we were treated to the Alaska Railroad pulling passenger cars loaded with vacationers from the Princess Cruise ships.   Railroads have always been important to Alaska and the Alaska Railroad still runs between major cities and destinations.  The cruise business is big in this area with trains and buses constantly shuttling people between the port of Anchorage and Denali National Park.   

A little ways up the Parks Highway from Talkeetna is "World Famous" Wal*Mikes.   No greeters met us at the door at this cool little roadside store.   They had a lot of stuff for sale, not much of it newer than 25 years.

Unlike Wal*Mart, Wal*Mikes is a special place.  I'll do a post with more photos from Wal*Mikes after I finish this series.

That's enough for the first blog post.  In tomorrow's post we'll continue day one with a visit to Denali State Park, Byers Lake and Carlo Creek.