Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Black Bear

I gave you a little teaser yesterday with the close up photo of a grizzly bear.  No, we didn't encounter the bear on a hike in the woods.   The bear was one of several at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

One the Seward Highway between Portage and Girdwood we found the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.    AWCC takes in injured and orphaned animals and provides spacious enclosures and care. Animals that cannot be released into the wild are given a permanent home at the center.  Others are released back into the wild.

We visited the center by walking around and watching the bears, bison, caribou, fox, and porcupine.   It was the first porcupine either of us had seen and I can't say that we saw much of him.   He was mostly sleeping and poked his head out once to look around.

We arrived just in time to catch the end of the bear feeding.   The center has built a high boardwalk above the bear habitat and the bears were out for dinner.   There were several grizzlies on one side and black bears on the other.  We didn't get to see bears close up in the wild so this was the next best thing.

Gotta Love That Face

Prior to the 20th century, Wood Bison inhabited Alaska and northwestern Canada for thousands of years. They disappeared from the state within the past 200 years, likely from a change in habitat distribution and effects of unregulated hunting. They were declared extinct in 1941 but a small herd was discovered in Canada in 1957.   The AWCC has maintained and grown a heard  since 2003.  In July of this year they released the latest of 130 Wood Bison back into the wilds of Alaska in and effort to restore the herds.  Most are wearing radio collars so they can be tracked and monitored.

Wood Bison

One of the more animated animals there was a Red Fox.   He was curious and seemed to want to know what we were up to. He was constantly moving around but would stop and look at us, giving me a great opportunity for a portrait shot.

Red Fox

Although we had seen several Moose on our first day in Denali, we enjoyed watching this big guy.    

Bull Moose

They also had a few birds of prey in one area.   Adonis arrived at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in 1995 after being shot.  His left wing required a full amputation as a result. Even though it is illegal to harm an eagle under the Bald Eagle Protection Act, an estimated 2,000 – 3,000 eagles are shot or injured in the United States each year. Since Adonis cannot fly, he has found a permanent home  at the AWCC.

Adonis

If you are traveling between Anchorage and Seward be sure to stop off for a couple hours and visit the center.   It's a great way to experience Alaska's wildlife up close.  They are a non-profit so you might want to consider a donation as well.

What are we up to tomorrow?   Here's a hint.  

Your Chariot Awaits

Looking For The Unexpected

One of the funny things about photography is we may think we have a plan and go out to photograph one subject and discover something completely unexpected and wonderful to photograph.   This is especially true in nature photography where we have very little control over the conditions we are in.  While on vacation I have gotten up at completely unreasonable times to drive a good distance to make photos of sunrise only to find only clouds or fog.   I've gone to Cades Cove several times to photograph Black Bears and not see a single one.

"We may make our plans, but God has the last word" 

- Proverbs 16:1 (Good News Translation).

We had this happen over and over again while in Alaska.   Here's just a few.

While still at Kantishna a friend told us about an old beaver pond near the airstrip.   No one had seen a beaver there and the people at the lodge thought the beavers may have moved on a while ago.   We had a couple hours before dinner so off we went to see what we could find.

The path to the ponds was more of a magician's  illusion - turn your head and it's gone.   We had been given some good directions and eventually made our way to some pretty ponds. We didn't see a beaver but did see three ducks in a small pond behaving very strangely.  They were swimming back at forth and appeared to be agitated by something.  I don't think it was us because we were pretty far away.   We watched them for a while and noticed something else was in the pond with them.

This pond is not big enough for all of us.

Yep, there was a beaver in that little pond.  He would swim back and forth across the pond.  It looked like he was trying to chase the ducks off but the were having no part of that.   We went to the beaver ponds not expecting to find a beaver and found both ducks and a beaver.

One thing we did find that I didn't expect was grasses on a mound of mud with a dead tree that made a nice pleasing photo.   If I had said we were going to look for mud, a dead tree and a clump of grass to photography people would have thought I was crazy.   This was an unexpected treat.

On our bus ride out we spotted some more moose.

Daddy Moose

It's hard to tell what's going on in this photo.  It was hard to tell when we were looking at it from the bus.  The driver explained what we were seeing is a bull moose that is in the process of losing the velvet off his antlers.   There were shreds still hanging on and some blood stains on the bone.

Momma and Baby Moose

 The photo of Momma and Baby was another long shot.  It was raining and a bit foggy, making the photo a little too fuzzy for me.   I did some Photoshop magic and made it appear to be a watercolor painting on canvas.  Not something I typically do to my photos but in this case it made a poor photo into something interesting.

We had planned to spend another day exploring Denali by bus but the weather turned nasty.  We went for a hike along the Savage River in a blizzard!

Savage River Blizzard

Snow

When it wasn't snowing it was blowing horizontal rain.   I couldn't take the lens cap off and make a shot before the lens was peppered with snowflakes.   It didn't look good for exploring or photographing that day.

One the way back to the park entrance we pulled over and started making photos of an area with a lot of Aspen trees with golden leafs.  While we were there the unexpected happened.   The clouds started to break and the sun beamed down on the Aspens and evergreens.   Then a rainbow appeared!

Rainbow

There's gold in them there hills!

OK, you're looking at these photos and thinking "he edited those to make the colors more vibrant."   This is what it looked like!   I told June while we were there that no one would believe how beautiful it was.

Before too long we had lots of company with cameras along the side of the road making photos of the unexpected beauty on a miserable cloudy, rainy, snowy day.

We were blessed that day with even more beautiful scenes.  God had the last word.

Tomorrow's blog will be about our afternoon on the Denali Highway - a 135 mile long dirt road through some of the most beautiful scenery outside the National Park.

Our First Denali Experience

Up to this point we have only seen Mount Denali from a distance and have not gotten into Denali National Park itself.   Today is the day!   With great anticipation we made our way through road construction (remember, there are only two seasons and we were there for the road construction season) to the park entrance.   We have about 6 hours until our flight into the interior of the park.

Beginning of Fall

The park is huge - 6,075,106 acres.  For comparison, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is only 522,427 acres.  As big as it is, there is only one road in the park.  The park road stretches 92.5 miles from the entrance to the old mining community of Kantishna.  Cars are only allowed on the first 15 miles of the park road.  After that the road turns to a narrow gravel road and only park buses are allowed past mile 15.   We had some time and decided to drive the park road and see what we could see.

It was August 23, and fall had already come to Denali.   Most of the fall color was in the ground cover, bushes and the red and purple Fire Weed which grows prolifically.  There are few large trees  in the park because the thick moss acts as an insulating blanket keeping the ground permanently frozen below the first few inches.

Frozen Tundra

Moose Jam

Not many miles into the park we ran into a familiar scene.  Anyone who has tried to drive around Cades Cove in the Smokies knows what a Bear Jam is.   Someone  spots a bear, stops their car, often in the middle of the road, and all the other cars jam up behind.   We had found a Moose Jam!   If someone on a park bus spots wildlife the driver stops so everyone can get pictures.   Still being in the first 15 miles we joined one bus and the other 20 or so cars to check out the moose.

Our first experience in Denali was spectacular.  There were several cows and a couple bulls not far from the road.   One of the bulls still had velvet on his antlers and other other had lost most of his, with some shreds still hanging on.  They didn't seem to mind all the cars and people, but instead munched away on the brush.   It was not raining at this point and I was able to get some nice clear shots.

A Big Guy

All at once we heard a small dog barking.  It was probably inside someone's car with the windows rolled down.  When the moose heard this little yapper they took off.   Keep in mind a bull Moose can weigh as much as 1,100 pounds or 500 kg.  These large beasts were scared off by something that weighed a couple pounds.

Running Away

What a great start to our Denali Experience.  

Aspens damaged by Porcupines.

We wanted to take in  a Ranger led hike through the woods to the Sled Dog Kennel so we headed back to the visitor center.   These ranger led activities are always informative.  Among other things we learned that Porcupines love to eat the bark of Aspen and Cottenwood trees.

We also learned that the Red Squirrels love mushrooms and will preserve them by putting them in trees to dry.  They will then store them to be eaten later in the winter when most of the food is covered by several feet of snow.

Mushroom In A Tree

As I said earlier, there were mushrooms everywhere.   Here are a few we saw on our hike.

A Strange One

Colorful Groundcover

We thought the hike time was round trip but learned that it was one way!   We had just enough time to say hi to the park sled dogs.   These are working dogs.  The Park Service uses dog sleds to get into the interior of the park during winter.  No motorized snow mobiles here.   A few days later we came back for a sled dog demonstration.

Snoopy was on to something

A beautiful dog

Willow Ptarmigan

We had to really move quickly to get back to the Visitor Center and catch our plane to Kantishna at 4:30.   Part way down we came up on a flock (?) of Willow Ptarmigan, which is the Alaska State Bird.  These chicken like birds are mottled in the summer to blend in with their surroundings, like this hiking trail.  In the winter they turn solid white.  

One Alaska town was to be named after this plentiful bird. The town was settled by gold miners in the late 1800s and in 1902 the local post office was established requiring a community name. Due to the prevalence of Ptarmigan in the area that name was suggested as the official name for the new community. However, the spelling could not be agreed on and Chicken was used to avoid embarrassment.  The town of Chicken is still there with a population of 7.  Really.  I couldn't make this stuff up.


The adventure was about to get more exciting.   Come back tomorrow for tales of our fist bush plane flight by the mountains, valleys and glaciers of Denali National Park!