Friday, July 31, 2015

July 21 - Glacier Bay Day 3: Glacier Bay

Leaving Haines today for a new adventure in Glacier Bay.
A sunny morning and the prediction for the entire day is sun (yea)! We were originally supposed to have a free afternoon today, but on recommendation of the Bear Track Lodge manager (this is where we are staying), we are going whale watching this afternoon. Nothing better than whale watching on a sunny day!!
We head for the airport around 9am and take off in our charter flight to Gustavas. Hey, there's a great mountain view at the airport!
Oh my what a fabulous flight. We first head out over Haines and briefly up the Lynn Channel. I can clearly see the glacier's milky water meeting the salt water of the channel - a clear demarkation in the water.
The folks on the right side of the plane see a bear (i.e., a dot on a beach).
Then comes the mountain portion flying over the Casement and Davidson Glaciers. Totally incredible!! I've walked near a glacier, on a glacier but have never flown low enough to see how beautiful it really is.

I can see where glaciers have merged, I can see the sediment pushed up from a glacier as it receded. I can see the little milky green lakes left behind by a melted glacier. And waterfalls -- tons of waterfall - again tumbling down from the ends of the glacier down the mountains. Totally amazing!!!
After we pass over the glaciers, we come to wet valleys probably many many years post-glacier succession. Varying shades of green (grass and pines) and lots of lakes. I'm looking for moose (as is the pilot) but no one sees one.
Before I knew it we were landing. Totally amazing!
We head to our "home" the Bear Track Lodge (a log cabin building - beautiful), unpack and head out for some whales watching near Point Adolphus. It nice and warm (60s) outside but very very windy at Bartlett Cove - where we board our boat. (It's within Glacier Bay.)
We board the Tazz and head out in the chopping waters.
From below deck (too much wave splashing to be on deck), we watch a sea otter as we pass by from a window.
We finally get to calmer waters and get our first whale sighting of the day. It's a few whales and we watch them blow 

and then see their dorsal fin go under the water. Soon we see the tell tale sign of a dive, their tail. 
After the tail, they disappear for a while so every waits to see where they'll come up.
The whales move away while we wait for two kayakers to board -- yes from the open water. They were on a five day paddle -- nasty waters to be out paddling today. Once they were on board, off we went to find the whales again.
I stay deck - I didn't think we were going that far - however, after getting a face full of water a few times, I decide it was time to head for cover. :)
We find the whales around the island and pass them so they can approach us and we can watch. The whale are between our boat and another having some fun - pec fin slapping. Never have seen that before (in person)
They eventually dove for a period of time. We're all waiting  looking to the sides of the boat for their return. I happen to turn around in time to see this streamline whale propelling itself like a bullet out of the water and then slamming itself in a breach back into the water. I try to yell "Whale!" but I'm not sure anything came out. I turn and another lady was pointing too! We look at each other and say "Did you see that!" We were the only 2 to see the breach. And it was pretty close to the boat! Amazing! That made my day!
We continue to watch these whales 
and then our boat took off fast. A guy on the deck tells me that there's a whale ahead that has already breached about 5 times, that's we were heading.
I watch it breach a few more times before we arrive and what an incredible show this one whale put on. 

He must have breached 30 times over the next 20 minutes. A couple times maybe 100ft off the back of the boat. 

Then there were tail lops, 

spy hops, 
pec  waves and pec/tail waves

this was just crazy!! That humpback must have been after a very happy day!! So wonderful to watch!
We finally had to leave to head back and that whale was still breaching. So fun!

What a totally awesome day -- flying over glaciers to a spectacular whale show!! Fantastic!!

July 20 - Glacier Bay Day 2: Haines AK

Still cloudy this morning (but not raining). After a 5:30am start yesterday, we get a break and meet for breakfast at 8am. Since we got until 10am before we leave the hotel, I take a quick 2 block walk down to the harbor and the Fast Ferry/Cruise Ship dock (different from where we arrive by ferry yesterday) for a look see. 
There's a lovely sign on the entry to Haines.

And a lovely view of the town as well.

This is one of my favorite signs.
I see a nice iron sculpture of a dog pull cart sculpture.
And, of course, there are some great views of the water.
I meet up with the group and we start our "city" tour: a walk around the old Fort Seward buildings, a stop at a museum for native carvers, a couple local shops and then the Sheldom Museum and Cultural Center. They have 2 displays: one on the native Chilkat and Chilkoot Tlinglet tribes and the second is a food museum. 
Afterwards, we have lunch at the Bamboo Room and then head to the Hammer Museum. Yes, a hammer museum - over 1400 of them dating from ancient time to the present day.
Since I was done, the guide let me head back to the hotel. I go via the waterfront walking past the small boat harbor and back to the fast ferry dock. The sun is finally starting to come out now which is perfect because this afternoon, we are going on a float trip down through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve (established in 1982 by the state is a 48,000 acre sanctuary for the Bald Eagle and salmon). 
The Chilkat River is home to all 5 species of Pacific Salmon (Chum, Pink, Coho, Sockeye, and King) and has one of the largest King and Coho runs in all SE Alaska. Of course all this fish brings in the eagles and bears - which I'm hoping to see. I believe we were told there were between 200-300 resident eagles as this river never freezes. And in late Nov, because of a late Chum Salmon run, there are over 4000 long the river. There's an Eagle Festival to celebrate.
The critical preserve section is mile 18 - 25 (the road mileage from Haines) and is best for viewing.
We leave at 2:30 for the raft trip. The sun is out now!! We follow the glacier fed Chilkat River about 20-22 miles to the "put-in" spot. We get our safety lesson and head out for the rafts into this beautiful milky grey colored braided river.
As a group of 7, we get our own raft. Ellie is our river guide. Beautiful mountains are everywhere. Off we go down the river looking for eagles, moose and bear. 

It didn't take long to spot some eagles. They were in trees, on logs, on dry spots on the river. We see single adults, adult pairs, 

and juveniles (he will get his white head at age 4-5).

Probably see over 20 eagles today.
(And the views were awesome!)

We see an eagle drying his wings very early on. 

It's called the Thunderbird pose - usually used by the eagle to drying its wings -- guess he must have wrestled a fish earlier today.
An eagle with a nest to the right (actually see several nests today)

Then 5 eagles challenging for a fish. Even an Artic Tern got into the mix. There was almost an eagle battle but the challengers backed off.
Before we stopped for all the other boats to catch up, 

another eagle drying his wings. Way cool!
The mountains were fabulous the whole day. And there were Darner dragonflies along the river. (I think they were Variegated Darners.)
Amazing day (especially the afternoon)!
After dinner, only two of us (plus the guide) went to cruise the Chilkoot River looking for bear. It's later this evening - we started at 9:30. We're hoping the later start will lead us to some bear.
The sunset over the channel and mountains is beautiful!
We cruise slowly down the river. We see bear sign - fresh scat in the middle of the road - directly across from a animal trail coming out of the woods......but no bear.
At the fish gate, over 21,000 fish were counted today (3 times the number from yesterday) but no bear. I do see about 5 Mergansers swimming/diving by the gate.
We turned around at the lake and head back slowly -- still no bear :( But at least we tried.
We are moving from Haines to Glacier Bay tomorrow - yea!!

Great day!

July 19 - Glacier Bay Adventure Day 1 - Juneau to Haines AK

Flew into Juneau AK last night, my first trip to Southeast Alaska. The flight was wonderful; could see down to the ground all the way to Seattle. Lots of snow on Mt Ranier and the surrounding mountains - saw one other snowy peak (very rounded - perhaps Mt Hood).
Landing in Seattle is a bit surprising as all the grass at the airport was very brown -- I thought it always rains in Seattle. They must be under that same persistent weather system that's got UT in drought conditions as well.
Pretty clear on the way to Juneau - seeing lots of snowy mountain ranges along the way. As we got nearer to Juneau, the ground disappears into clouds. The cool is that some of the mountain peaks are standing above the fluffy clouds!
Landed safely and took a taxi to the "destination hotel" in downtown Juneau. Phase 1 complete - arrive safely in Juneau.
Today (Sunday), I get up to a very overcast Juneau but at least it's not raining!!. I meet the 5 other people on my trip plus the guide and off we went to the Alaskan Ferry that will take us from Juneau to Haines up through the Lynn Channel. (My first travels on the Alaskan Maritime Highway.)
Along the way to the ferry terminal, we drive pass the Mendenhall Glacier - very pretty - looking forward to seeing it up close on our last day.
We arrive at the Ferry terminal on Auke Bay. On board, we get seats on the upper deck in an area called the Solarium -- just a covered portion of the upper deck. As the ferry moves from the dock, we get departure greeting from 2 Bald Eagles perched on some poles. Very majestic birds!

Exiting Auke Bay, we have some good view of a glacier (this might be the Mendenhall, we are nearby)

Off we went for the 4.5 hrs cruise through channel. The entire way we see beautiful mountain peaks (some snow covered, some glacier covered and some clear), lots of waterfalls all of them tumbling down from the highest points of the mountains (which were 5-7000ft tall).
Did I mention the glaciers, lots of them. See one glacier that was really multiple glacier streams merged together - I could see the striations of dirt were the glaciers merged.

On some glaciers, I could tell that they just recently receded as the ground was just dirt or rock - no vegetation; the vegetation was further down the mountain.
All very spectacular!!!
The special treats of the ride -- two humpback whales. A very brief encounter - the guide see them first and then we wait. Of course, I am looking in the wrong direction when the one breaches, I just see the splash. But I did see the tail of the second whale!!!
Further along, I see about 5 porpoises (probably Harbor Porpoises) - quite by luck. I was exiting from the bathroom when I saw several people running for the lower deck, I knew it was something good and followed along. And I'm happy I did. The porpoises were behind us in the distance. Yea!
Along the way, we see Salmon that we jumping out of the water. Makes me jump several times thinking it was something like a porpoise, seal, etc.
One salmon jumps along for quite some distance - perhaps it's getting chased by a predator.
We are closing in on  a white building on an island - looks like a monastery -- but it turns out to be a lighthouse on Sentinel Island.
As we get closer to Haines, the water got a little milkier - meaning more glacier silt.
And yes, we're still passes mountains and glaciers.
As we dock in Haines, we get a low circular deck flyover by 2 Bald Eagles - an awesome greeting to Haines.
Once off the boat, we head for our hotel - Hotel Halsingland (former Commanding Officer Quarters of Historic Fort Seward). I have a wonderful room looking at the channel (and mountains and Fort Seward fire hose tower) out one window
and a park (former parade grounds) out the other. Very beautiful!
After lunch, we head for a short 1 mile hike through the woods to Battery Point at the Chilkat State Park.

On the way, I see lots of Fireweed in bloom. It blooms from the bottom up and its close to being bloomed out. 

Around the trail's parking area - there are red elderberry (with berries), devil's claw and twisted stalk (this looks a bit like Solomon's Seal). I did not know that the berry of Twisted Stalk is eatable - called watermelon berry. Tried it, really doesn't have much of a taste but it does give a pop of water in the mouth. Blueberries are also found -- they were very tart.
And that's all before we start the trail. The trail was through a Sitka Spruce/Hemlock forest. Lots of wonderful wooded plants
Bunchberry -- some with berries and other not.

Shy Maiden (past bloom), Rein Orchids, and Skunk Cabbage (only one with a bloom stalk) -- much larger than the ones in the Midwest.
Bright orange mushrooms (I think our guide called them Shelf Mushrooms) - these are eatable.
It starts to rain while we are in the forest. I can hear the rain but the forest really protects us from getting wet.
Upon exiting the forest, we see a small patch of Fireweed in front of the water - so pretty. 
We also find, yellow Paintbrush, sweet pea and a wild Geranium (blue).
Never make it to Battery Point (the endpoint of the hike) - partly because of the rain and partly because the guide had to take one the participants back to the car. But that's OK still a great hike!!
At supper, the special is Dungeness Crab. I would like to try it I have no idea how to eat it with the body shell and all. I mention this to the guide and lady (from Portland) sitting next to me. The lady orders the crab and made it a point to show me how to "attack" it. She was pretty insistent (had the guide and myself laughing) but extremely helpful. Now the pressure is on for me to order it at the next opportunity :)
After supper, we went to look for  bear on the Chilkoot River. They are seen when the salmon begin to run and the salmon are just starting their run. Not many bear have been seen at the river recently but at some point they will arrive, so we took a chance -- we only need one bear. It's raining harder now as we watch intently at the river as we drive slowly down the road. Seeing only fisherman.
Pass the fish gate which funnels the salmon through an exit point (fisheries do this to count the salmon - around 7000 went through the gate today).
But no bear tonight :(

Time to call it a day -- good day!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

July 12 - Mormon Pioneer Trail

Have to check on the butterflies today - it's been almost a month since I've been here and it's peak bfly season.

Beautiful morning - sunny and clear -- should be near 80 for a high.

The vegetation looks a little dry -- which would make sense since up until last week we've been extremely hot with no rain.

There are purple daisies, geraniums, and clover blooming. Oh yea, and there's plenty of lupine still in bloom but some of it has gone to seed.

It's actually pretty dead as far as bflies go for the 1st mile -- except the many 2-tailed swallowtails flying by.

It picks up a little after that but for the most part, no where never the butterfly numbers of the past two summers. :( But lots of Weidenmeyer Admirals!

Still plenty of species though; I count 24 today. New flyers for the season include the Small Wood Nymph, Melissa Blue, and some Fritillaries (Great Spangled and what, after much time looking at photos on the Butterflies of America website, have concluded look like Northwestern and Great Basin Frits).

Additionally, I add 3 new species to my list for this site:
Taxiles Skipper
California Tortoiseshell

And what looks very much like a European Skipper.

As the name would suggest, this is a non-native bfly introduced around 1910 into North America. Its predominantly a flyer in the northeast but there are a few spots in the west where there have been sightings. (We saw what looked like one in the Uintas last summer.)

Although the clover and mint was in bloom, scat was the popular feeding source for the butterflies. I see Weidenmeyer's Admirals, Satyr Commas, Small Wood Nymphs and a CA Tortoiseshell feeding on the scat.

I haven't seen this too often, but I spot a Comma nectaring on mint.

After the 3 mile mark, it seems there are more dragonflies zipping about than butterflies.
A Darner:


Eight Spotted Skimmer (female):

Thought the butterflying may get better on the way back as it was around noon, but no luck.

Good day!

Friday, July 10, 2015

July 10 - Sunset Peak

Heading up Sunset Peak today from Albion Basin in Little Cottonwood Canyon. (I could get there via Brighton Lakes Trail in Big Cottonwood but the Albion Basin side is much prettier especially with the Summer Wildflower season started.)

Beautiful morning, after a record setting hot June, this week has been cooler and below/near normal with some rain from summer monsoons. It's sunny right now, but the weather says late morning storms possible in the mountains.

Heading up the summer road to the trail head, I spot a single doe grazing along the slope above me. And the wildflowers are crazy!

I get to the trail head and there's more cars than I expected at around 8am (but definitely not full).

The trail head is at 9379ft, Catherine's Pass (10,200ft) is about 1 mile away; Sunset Peak (10,650ft) is about a 1/2 mile further. Off I go through the abundance of flowers!

The trail is mostly in the shade but pops out into the sunlight at times.

Lots of flowers in bloom: Penstemon and Beardtongues (in many different shades of blue), Geraniums, Scarlet Gilia (but white), lots of Lupine, many different species of buckwheat. paintbrush (a couple of species), sedum, and so many more.

Devils Castle and Sugarloaf mountains are shining brightly in the morning sun.

Up, up I go through the flowers.

I get to the big meadow and it is not in bloom -- but it will be coming. Saw lots of hummingbirds in the meadow last year.

The views from over the meadow back on Devils Castle are pretty nice!

I finally come to Catherine's Pass and my destination (Sunset Peak) is just ahead of me.

I take a quick stop to have a good look around. Catherine Lake is still in the shadows. I can see Lake Mary in the distance. Lots of flowers in bloom. And a little chipmunk checking for dropped snacks from the hikers.

I start the remaining portion my hike which is not new -- actually its my favorite part -- up to Sunset Pass and the intersection with the Great Western Trail. Kinda looks a little like the moon (in my opinion) for a bit but then there are nice views of mountain peaks everywhere.

I'm seeing Sulpher Paintbrush now.

I continue on to the intersection of the Great Western.

Now for the final ascent to Sunset Peak. This part is all new for me. Most of the climb is facing Catherine Lake.

And then it heads to the opposite side to crest the peak.

The views are just incredible the entire way.

I do like the view above Catherine Lake but I'm still going higher.

I finally make it to the top!! There are 5 other people already there enjoying the 360 views.

To the north: Lake Catherine, Martha and Mary.

To the northwest: Wolverine Peak and Mt Tuscarora towering over Catherine's Pass and lake.

A little further west is American Fork Twin Peaks, Sugarloaf and Mt Baldy. (Secret Lake sits below Sugarloaf).

And can't forget Mt Superior. I can see my trail a few hundred feet below.

To the south, Devils Castle and sitting in the  distance, Mt Timpanogos (the Wasatch Range's 2nd highest peak at 11,752ft).

To the east, Pioneer Peak, Clayton Peak and then out past Park City/Heber.

Pretty darn incredible!!

I spot butterfly on the top but with so many people (there's 7 now) and some steep drop-offs, I'll just be bugged by what it was. :) (I do think it was a Chryxus Arctic because of the flash of muted yellow on the upper wings.)

Some dark clouds are starting to form, time to head on down.

I get down and head to my favorite spot a little further along the Great Western for some wildflowers and mountains.

Now its really time to head back.

I was hoping the trail and the flowers would be in full sun on the way down, but the clouds are filling in with peeks of sun.

The flowers are still awesome!

These are my favorites for the day.

I spot a Cassin's Finch (I think) as I near the trail head.

And a Yellow-bellied Marmot. Oh, there's two of them. And another one pops it's head out. It's a Mom and her babies!

I watch and slowly move along the trail (which actually gets me closer). A third pops his head up! I'm almost past when the alarm cry goes off, the Mom and 2 of the babies disappear but one rebel stays above ground (he might not live too long if he doesn't listen to Mom).

I leave them in peace and head to my car.

Awesome day!!