Lower Trail Lake and Vagt Lake

On Sunday August 30 we are starting to  near the end of our vacation.  This is the day we were supposed to do a sea kayak trip to Kanai Fjords, paddle around glaciers and possibly see some wildlife.    We tried the kayak trip two days but it was canceled both days due to high winds and ten foot waves.  We were really looking forward to that part of our trip.  We had been training in a kayak at home to prepare for the all day trip.  We brought rain pants, paddling gloves and extra layers of quick dry clothing for that adventure.  I even had a waterproof camera from my friend John Barrett. This will have to be something we try again on our next trip to Alaska.

Instead we decided to explore some of the area around Moose Pass.   We picked the Lower Trail Lake and Vagt Lake.  That's not a typo, the name of the lake is Lower Trail Lake.

Lower Trail Lake

Looking for Wildlife

What a cold day!   The winds were pretty strong and created white caps on that little lake.   This was not the day for photographing beautiful reflections in the surface of a calm lake. We walked along the shore for a while watching for wildlife.  All we saw were some Sea Gulls and dead fish washed up on shore.   I think the sea gulls were there for an easy meal.

Leprechaun?

We left the shores of Lower Trail Lake and headed up the Vagt Lake Trail.  This easy 4 mile hike took us through forests carpeted with green plants and plenty of mushrooms. Some of the online reviews of this trail say it's only for fishermen to get to Vagt Lake, but we found it to be interesting and had some pretty spots along the way.

Sometimes it's difficult to stop and set up to take macro (close up) photos along a trail like this.   When I set up my tripod will often block the path.  I have to set up and make the shot before having to move the tripod to let another hiker pass by.   This was not a problem on this hike.   We had the forest and trail to ourselves.

I think this would be a great place for the mythical little men known as Leprechauns.  According to legend, they eat nettles and berries.  Leprechauns love Mushrooms especially mushroom tea. We had all three in abundance. We didn't see any.  Maybe they saw us first?

Mushrooms and Bunchberries

The Bunchberries were plentiful along the trail.   A member of the dogwood family, these grow close to the ground.  In the early summer they have white flowers like the dogwood tree and in late summer their berries turn bright red.

Field of Cotton-Grass

After taking a fisherman's trail part of the way around Vagt Lake, we back tracked and found a nice little beach area.  It was obviously used for camping and fishing at times.  Still no one in sight.  We did see plenty of animal tracks all along the trail. We were certainly staying alert for bear on this trail!

Not Exactly A Sea Kayak

Vagt Lake

It was still pretty windy and while there were no white caps on Vagt Lake, we weren't going to see any reflections of the mountains in the lake today.   There were these beautiful grasses growing along the lake shore.  They were swaying in the wind like wheat in a field.

After a lunch break at the fisherman's camp, we headed back down the trail and out.

Tomorrow's blog post will be about Tonsina Point,  Tonsina Creek, and hundreds of salmon.

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!

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.