Alaska! (Part 5) -- September 2-15 -- Denali National Park

One last photo of the Northern Lights over Twin Lakes, along the Denali Highway; you can see the mist rising above the lake -- 

I had made reservations for 1 week at Teklanika Campground in Denali National Park starting September 8,  so as I had 6 days to kill I headed up to Fairbanks. It would turn out to be the furthest north that I would go. Sure, the Arctic Circle is only about 200 miles from Fairbanks, but it's more for bragging rights than anything else. Going north on the Parks Highway you can see the west side of the Alaska Range, the east side of which I'd seen a few days before in crystal-clear weather -- and now they were shrouded in clouds. Serendipitous once again...As I'd boondocked for a few days  with no hookups, and would have none again during my week in Denali, I splurged and spent 2 days in Fairbanks at an RV park. I asked the gal behind the reception desk for places nearby to hike and bird, and she said Creamer's Field. Charles Albert Creamer was a former chicken rancher from Washington State who moved to Fairbanks in 1927 and established Creamer's Dairy. He saved waste grains from his barn to feed migrating birds, and once he died the area was made a state sanctuary. It's mostly known as a rest stop for migrating Sandhill Cranes and the Sandhill Crane Festival, which had been held the week before I'd arrived. But there were still plenty of Cranes left in the fields -- 

After 2 days in Fairbanks I headed back south. Prior to this, the weather had been phenomenal -- clear and pretty warm for this time of the year. Now it was starting to feel more like fall, and the skies were cloudier. I spent 2 days at a campground in Anderson, about 8 miles off the Parks Highway, and it rained for the first time during the trip. It was now after the Labor Day holiday, so many campgrounds were closed and my overnight options fewer. Anderson is a one-road "town" and that road had a lot of potholes filled with water. I remember my stay as being overcast, dizzy and damp. And there were mosquitos -- not a lot, but enough to be bothersome. So I tried a little experiment. Mosquitos are attracted to the carbon dioxide in your exhaled breath, so I tried to breathe lightly and shallow when I was outside the trailer for short periods of time. It worked. So now I had Thermacell and light breathing to keep the skeeters at a minimum.  When I left the campground 2 days later I discovered that the one road through Anderson was closed because the potholes were being filled. I got out of the truck and asked a construction worker how to get around the road work. He gave me directions that flew out of my head as soon as he said them; too many "rights" and "lefts".  But I eventually made it back on the Parks Highway. I was due in to the Denali campground the next day, so I didn't go too far south, staying at the Tatlanika Trading Co. and RV Park -- 

And right along the Nenana River -- 

There weren't that many people at the RV site, so the next morning I was surprised and a bit concerned to see someone pulled up beside Discovery and leave his engine running and lights on. And there was no campground space where he had parked. He was there for about an hour, then left. Who knows what THAT was about. 

And now -- Denali National Park. I checked in, wandered around the visitor center, and heading in to Teklanika Campground. There's only one road through the park, which visitors can drive until the pavement ends. At that point, you can go further only if you have reservations at a campground further along the road.  Teklankia is the furthest you can go with a trailer or RV. The rules are, in a word, unique. Your vehicle has to stay at the campground. Your bus pass is only good for going further into the park; if you want to head back towards the park entrance, you have to pay. Which is why I took as many photos as I could along the road in. The views are, in a word, vast -- 

I saw one of the park buses at a pullout with the riders looking at something off to the south, so I parked and looked too; it was Denali -- 

Denali the mountain would loom over everything here, whether or not it was in view. I arrived at Teklanika Campground, which is along the Teklanika River -- 

And -- serendiptious once again -- I was able to stay at one of only 2 pull-through sites.

The campground was only half full at most. I had made reservations for 7 days, and from that first day onward I was wondering whether a week there would be enough. The day after I arrived at Teklanika I boarded one of the green park buses that go further into the park. You can be dropped off wherever you like, and the buses coming back will pick you up. The views of the landscape and wildlife can be great even from the bus, though I always had trouble lowering and closing the windows and lost more than a few shots due to that. But the drivers -- well, most of them -- will stop if you see something, such as these Dall Sheep; here's one instance when I lowered the window in time to get a good shot --

That's what is known as a "nursery", where the females watch over the lambs while the males are off in their own group, rarely associating with the females unless it's mating season. 

One of the scenic highlights is the view from Polychrome Overlook; at this point the dirt road hugs the side of a mountain and has a dropoff of around a thousand feet -- with no guard rail. It can get pretty tricky here for the bus drivers ---

During one of the bus rides the driver,  Darlene -- get on her bus if you can, she's a mine of info about Denali and its wildlife -- pointed off to an outcropping near Polychrome where there were two young Gyrfalcons, saying there's an active nest in the area -- 

The youngsters, probably siblings, would hang out together, the fly off on the hunt, rocketing over the vast landscape below -- 

Meanwhile, back near the campground, I saw a Snowshoe Hare turning into its winter color of white, which is for camouflage in the snow. It has the name "Snowshoe" because of its large hind feet -- 

Except for this Spruce Grouse, the Gyrfalcons and a blurry view of Willow Ptarmigans from the bus, I really didn't see too many birds in the park. Though I'm happy with the way this photo turned out -- 

I was enjoying myself so much, and the weather was for the most part so cooperative, that I ended up staying at Denali for 2 weeks. And Denali the mountain was "out" for most of that time, as seen here with the park road snaking off into the distance, and one of the park buses kicking up a plume of dust behind it -- 

Here's Denali on another day, near Wonder Lake -- 

OK, now on to the grizzlies... Here's one that ambled across the road in front of the bus, and went up the ridgeline. I had my 500mm with me and got this shot, but it was tricky as the frame of the window kept on getting in my view. As at my boondocking site along the Denali Highway, the big lens was a topic of discussion among the other passengers,  especially the Asian ones. One fellow even gave me his e-mail address so I could send him a copy of this pic -- 

I met some people during my time in Denali, chief among them being Robert and Mary Ann from Fort Collins, Colorado, staying at Teklanika Campground in their Arctic Fox camper. We roamed the land adjacent to the road together, looking for a wolverine that had been spotted near Polychrome Outlook but, alas, "skunked". Also Silvia, a bubbly German "girl" (35) with pigtails who was there with her husband; we kept on bumping into them on the buses. And there was a Parks Service employee who we also encountered a few times.  One of those times was when we saw this grizzly near the Eileson Visitor Center. It put on quite a show, gamboling in the tundra landscape and walking along the pathways near the center, though you're supposed to stay at least 300 yards from them -- 

Here are some more wildlife sightings, in no particular order. A caribou -

A grizzly with 2 cubs, giving itself a back scratch on a small tree -- 

The same grizz and cubs -- 

Just in case you thought I was kidding about the "gamboling" grizzly near the visitor center -- 

Another grizzly encounter along the road -- 

Bullwinkle!  

All too soon, my time at Denali was coming to an end. The weather was starting to get colder, and the campground would close in a few days.  This is along the Teklanika River -- 

It was now September 15, and I regretfully headed out of the park.  Denali the mountain had finally disappeared, but the landscape was of course still magnificent -- 

And near the entrance, the fall colors were spectacular. But what really impressed me was the vastness of the autumn display; it was way beyond anything I'd seen in the eastern Sierra --

And one last look at Denali from the day before. The weather is definitely changing, and it was time to head south... 

Alaska! (Part 4) -- September 1, The Northern Lights

After the long, pothole-avoiding drive along the Denali Highway, I decided to take it easy the next day. Fat chance. Though it started out that way, with mist rising over Twin Lakes and one of th muskrats swimming over to my side of the lake to collect more leafy branches for its underwater burrow. 

I'd read somewhere that the Northern Lights had been putting on a spectacular show all over Alaska for the past few days. They occur year-round, but become visible only when the days are shorter. Still, I heard they were currently occurring between 11:30pm and 2:30am, and I usually was in bed by 10pm after a usually busy, tiring day. But this could have been the last day when you could see them at this particular peak cycle, and as view conditions at my camping spot were perfect -- a pretty much unimpeded view of the sky, no clouds in the forecast, no light pollution from nearby towns, and the possibility of them appearing over the lake -- I was ready with my camera setup by 6pm. I was using my Canon 7D MK I camera body with the 17-55 f/2.8 lens, a tripod, and shutter remote to reduce camera shake. I had no idea on what camera settings to use, but I did take successful nighttime lightning shots back home and wrote the settings down which I luckily brought with me, so I figured I at least had a starting point. So I sat in my camp chair, took out my Kindle, and waited...Then a Road Trek van stopped at my pullout. Shoot!  I really preferred to view the Northern Lights alone, mainly because nobody would see me if I started cursing because I couldn't get the right settings -- or I fell into the lake. But that's if I even saw them, which was unlikely.  My camping spot along the lake was large enough for my truck and trailer plus 2 other vehicles, so people were constantly stopping to take photos of the lake. But the Road Trek van appeared to be staying there for awhile, possibly even overnight. The side door opened and a guy came out; he asked if I minded if he could stay the night as he wanted to possibly photograph the Northern Lights. It turned out his name was Tim McCreary, and he "chased" the Northern Lights. He and his wife had just come from Fairbanks where they witnessed a display that rated high on his scale. Meeting Tim was akin to having Len Jellicoe see my "FARANUF" license plate back at the campground along the Cassiar Highway; he too is a well-known birder and bird photographer. And he lives in the Las Vegas area. So we set up our camera equipment and waited. Tim gave me tips on which camera settings to use but, to be honest, they just flew right out of my head and I ended up winging it. But the best advice he gave me -- and this I remembered -- was to have a lens tissue on hand because my lens would probably fog up. As you can see from the morning photo, the muskrat was swimming through mist rising from the lake, so there undoubtedly would be fog or mist during the early morning hours that we'd be out. Luckily, I had a few lens cleaning  tissues left, and after the night was over was extremely grateful that I did. Because...

Shortly after 11:30 Tim said "There's a greenish glow off to the north". It was faint, but noticeable. Then a small, wavy curtain slowly became visible. 

Good God. There they are. I had my camera at ISO 16000, which means it's more sensitive to dim light so there is more of a chance that the camera will record the image. The thing is, the higher the ISO the grainier the photo, so my first shots were crap. Shoot, I hope I get the settings right before the show ends... I finally did. As you'll see, ISO 6400 did a much better job...

The wavy line grew more subtantial . 

It looked like a comet -- 

Formed into a zigazg swirl...

then faded out. Shoot. Is that it? Hang on... 

It started up again, this time in more of a northwesterly direction . And more over our heads; you can see a tree at the bottom, left of center. It was much larger than the first formation. 

Then the swirl pattern grew until it resembled a green-hued spiral galaxy...

Lost a bit of its spiral, but became brighter. These didn't suddenly pop into view; they formed in the sky as we watched. The Northern Lights are sometimes accompanied by a sound, but we didn't hear any. 

This is as good of a time as any to explain what causes the Northern Lights, which are called "Aurora borealis" in the northern hemisphere and "Aurora australis" in the south. The simplest explanation is that they're caused by collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. Increased sunspot activity means more electrons and protons are blown towards the earth on a "solar wind". The charged particles are usually deflected by the earth's magnetic field, but the field is weaker at both the south and north poles so some particles enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles. And that creates the dancing lights. But I found out what caused the Northern Lights afterwards, and at the time just reveled in the display without knowing what created them. 

The show continued. Tim said the the Lights were brighter and more frequent when he saw them a few days before in Fairbanks. There's a scale of 0 to 9 that represents the level of solar activity, and by the end of the lights this night Tim said they were only about a 3 or 4. If this was only a 4 at best, then a 10 would be like sharing visions with Carlos Castenada after smoking peyote. A curtain formed, and I could see hints of purple --

I'd finally settled on good camera settings --- ISO 6400, bulb shooting mode, a low shutter speed of 5.5 to bring in the light, and an aperture of 4.5; my lens could go down to 2.8, which means it's pretty darn good in low light. And that was helpful because most of the lights were pretty dim so far. 

As you can see -- or barely see. Was this going to be it? 

Still fading out...The light on the lower left are the tail lights of a car on the Denali Highway, so you can tell how low the lights are to the horizon. 

Then things started brightening up again, with the direction changing; this was more to the north, over the lake, where you can see a faint reflection. 

Then a curtain formed above us; you can see Discovery's roof at the bottom. 

It got brighter and waved like a curtain in a breeze -- 

And brighter and larger still, with areas of purple. 

Tim said he's seen displays that go on all over the sky at the same time, but this night it was in one section of the sky at a time. Here it's above the horizon to the northwest. By this time I was at the edge of the lake, almost in the water as I was trying to get a clear view of the lights. Those aren't trees; they're plants along the water's edge. 

Then it formed above the lake. By this time it was 2:21, mist was rising above the water. So there I was, nearly in the lake, with the camera on a tripod, and I was using lens cleaning tissue every 5 minutes to clear off the condensation on the lens. You can see a bit of reflection on the lake. 

Then it grew a bit fainter...

fainter still then started to lose its shape...

Then -- BAM!  I can only describe it as a door opening, and a bright greenish light shining out. Everything was bathed in green, and the iights were shimmering and waving. Just a 3 or a 4? Wow. 

It re-formed over the lake...

And turned into a huge pinwheel, slowly revolving. You can make out the mist over the lake. 

Then a huge sheet of green formed to the northwest, filling the sky all the way down to the tops of the mountains; by this time I was in mud along the lake -- 

It then started to fade out...

then stretched up in the sky. By this time it was around 2:45 and the displays had gone on for over 3 hours - 

And finally things started to quiet down. A last reflection over the lake -- 

Fading... And then Tim and I called it a night. I was cold and zonked-out -- but what a show. I consider it to be the highlight of my entire North To Alaska trip. 

One more image...I took this photo when it was along the horizon to the north, and it was only when I saw it on the computer screen that I realized I got Tim's Road Trek van in the frame. And it looks as if it's heading into the heavens. Road Trek meets Star Trek...