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East Denali HighWay & Valdez (AK)
The Denali Highway is definitely not a highway, it was in poor condition and it took me almost the full day to drive the seventy remaining miles of dirt.
1. Glacial plains make the rivers meander.
2. During my lunch stop, I first saw the mother ptarmigan…
3. … then some of its progeny. Two months after birth, they have grown and are about half their adult size.
4. Wide glacial valleys offer great views.
5. Getaway on a side track.
6. There to, there is nice flowers.
7. Near the East Junction, the view opens on the Alaska Range.
8. A weather opening allows me to see off one of the highest mountains in that range, Mount Hayes, which rises to over 13,800 feet above sea level.
9. Light patch…
10. Clouds arrive…
11. Boondocking on a hill in the tundra.
12. Given the bad weather announced, I continued the road to Valdez. The road ends here!
13. The mouth of Valdez Glacier Stream is a real birdhouse for bald eagles! I observed more than thirty of those, awesome! Here is one that comes…
14. … and lands not too far on a hunting spot. I crawled 300 yards in the mud to get closer… 😀
15. Returning, I see fresh grizzly tracks.
I talked to a local who stopped to see VivaLaVida and he tells me that this place is frequented by many grizzlies, especially late in the day for a good reason. This place is close to a salmon hatchery. And as you probably know, after a 4-year cycle, to reproduce, salmons return to their birthplace. Here, they try to go upstream in a nearby river but are blocked by a waterfall and remains between the bay and the waterfall. While this is only the beginning of the breeding season, there were already thousands of salmons crowded into this little river and bears have understood that it’s easy to catch food up here to make their required reserves for hibernation.
So I decided to wait a moment and I was lucky… 😉
16. A male probably 4-5 years old arrived on the scene and catched a first salmon without waiting!
17. He repeated the operation 6-7 times, not leaving much to the seagulls quickly ready to steal the remains. It was funny to see the bear trying to scare thoses when they came to close. 😀
18. I’m only about 12 yards away and enjoy the spectacle!
19.
The grizzly is not the only one to take advantage of the opportunity; This sea lion is also hunting. He catched about 12 salmons in about half an hour!
20. Eyes still dazzled by this show, I went to sleep at the bottom of the glacier.
21. The rain fell again, moisture was probably at 100%, giving an atmosphere of rainforest…
22. To complete this update, a small iceberg rather aesthetic in layers of mist…
Way back from Valdez and McCarthy Road to come in a few days.
Thank you again to follow us with as much fidelity! 😉
From Yukon to Alaska!
First, let me take this update to wish a good 1st August (Swiss National Day) to my Swiss readers. 😉
After three days in Inuvick trying to find a small boat that would take me bird watching in the Mackenzie River delta, I was frustrated: not even a “local” wanted to take me there. “To much bugs actually” they have all said. I must say that it’s true: this place was particularly infested, widening and slowing Mackenzie River forming hundreds marshes perfect for the mosquitos larvae. Without repellent, between 10PM and 9AM, it’s just impossible to stay outside. In three seconds, there are 100 who attack, almost inconceivable for who havn’t lived it..!
So I hit the “Dempster” South again since it’s the only road linking Inuvick the rest of the world … With some company also since I offered a “ride” to two hitchhikers.
Sebastien, a French guy who travels between Mexico in winter and California or Yukon in summer to earn some money for example by picking the mushrooms that grow the first year after forest fires. I must say that it pays not bad: $300 to $500 per day on average, sometimes with great harvests more than $1,000 for the lucky day!
And Pierre, a Canadian guy from Calgary, perfectly bilingual as having studied in Aix-en-Provence, who paddled down the Mackenzie River in kayak solo from Yellow Knife area; more than 1,500 miles in 18 days for a first solo trip, not bad!
1. About 22:30 on the Dempster…
2. VivaLaVida’s color changed a little, isn’t it? 😉
3. Last night in Yukon, for now at least, up a small pass not far away from “Top of the World Highway”.
4. Sunset was gorgious et midnight…
5. The next day, just after crossing the border into Alaska, I stopped maybe a mile after and was welcomed by him: a beautiful red fox, not fearful sinc he past 5 yards away only..!
6. Short day trip to discover Eagle City, housed in a cove of the Yukon River. It’ss from here that Roald Amundsen sent a telegram to inform that he had managed to cross the famous Northwest Passage, December 6th, 1905 after more than 500 miles with sled dog. It was the closest place from the place where is boat Gjøa was wintering caught in the ice since November!
7. The city appears out of the past too, really a world away…
8. Thunderstorm on the trail to Eagle City.
9. Rivers must have real floods seeing the width of some river beds…
10. Boondocking on a river bank…
11. A Barrow goldeneye, quite rare…
12. Here in central Alaska, there is an incredible amount of large blue dragonflies, even in places that seem rather dry and without lakes…
VivaLaVida’s vent control haven’t withstood thousands of miles on more or less rhough trails, I explored the area of Fairbanks waiting to get the ordered part…
13. Tundra : a mixture of lichens and some other colorful plants. They remain only a few inches tall even if most hare more than one hundred years old!
14. At the boundary between taiga and tundra, other flowers adorn the path.
15. It is 10:30 PM but the sun still shines on the taiga and its gentle hills…
16. In the distance, a colorful shower colored by the sun low on the horizon…
17. Thunderstorm lighted by last sunrays.
When the part finally arrived five days later, I took the road again but not toward North as planed. The weather forecast were bad for at least the two coming weeks. So I headed South.
I will present it here soon… 😉
Atlantic Ocean (2)
Happy New Year to all of you! 😀
I continue here the photographic story of my year-end journey on the Atlantic coast of South Carolina and Georgia.
1. It begins with another sunrise, very cold again…
2. First sunrays on a beautiful shell (very postcard, isn’t it? );-)
3. Oaks alley on Hunting Island, gorgeous…
I then headed north of Charleston to visit Franklin Marion National Forest, in particular areas of forest swamps.
4. Suspension bridge spanning an inlet in Charleston.
5. On the road, marine reedbeds…
6. A visitor to my campsite in the evening … Awesome! Too bad it was so high up…
7. Nice forest roads to go to the swamps…
8. Here they are. The atmosphere was amazing, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a troll coming out of the swamp..! 😉
9. Wading in the mud with my sandals, I found other views…
10. One last picture…
11. While I was looking for a place to sleep, the weather turned bad and a storm started a gray and rainy episode…
12. A small lull still allow me grilling my evening meal… 😀
I took the road South again, stopping to see Angel Oak, a giant tree in Charleston. I already stopped there on the way up but it is precisely the day that the State services proceeded with its annual maintenance … 🙁
Angel Oak is immense: its trunk is more than 6 yards in diameter, the tree itself more than 50 yards in diameter and 35 high. Its age is estimated at four or five hundred years. The photo below is a panorama of 60 images! In fact, 4 panoramas 5 images, each of three bracketed images at -2, 0 and +2 EV, assembled to remove dozens of visitors on the site … 😀
13. Angel Oak, the giant tree!
14. Several branches lie on the ground…
15. A true tormented colossus…
the following will be a little more animal and urban… 😉
D5 Creation