Nature – Page 2 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Alaska Railroad Denali Star

Posted on July 3, 2021 by geek

We took Alaska Railroad’s Denali Star to get to Denali from Anchorage and also took it back to Anchorage. The route is just gorgeous. It goes along mountain creeks, glacial valleys, river gorges, and lakes. I was also somewhat obsessed with the clouds and the atmospheric features on both trips because the mountains were creating incredibly interesting skies. Note: the photos below are a mix of photos from the trip to Denali and the trip back to Anchorage. Also, some of the photos below include the Nenana River on which I went rafting. Also, a different view of the Hines River, featured in the photo at its confluence with the Riley River, can be seen in my photos from hiking in Denali National Park.

As this is my second round trip on Alaska Railroad, with the trip to Seward being the first, I highly recommend paying extra for Goldstar seats if you are a photographer. Besides the free meals and glass-dome ceilings on the cars, the Goldstar cars also have an outside platform passengers can go out onto at anytime, which obviously makes for much better photos. Also of note, there is an Alaska Railroad employee pointing out places of interest along the journey and letting you know when you might want to get a photo. I found it very helpful, but for reasons that are beyond me, on the Denali trip, they kept pointing out gravel pits as points of interest. I’m a geeky engineer, and even I can’t figure out why they think we all find gravel pits incredibly interesting.

Denali seen rising above the clouds beyond the Susitna River near Talkeetna

Susitna River

Pond next to the Indian River

Hurricane Gulch

Summit Lake

Nenana River

Confluence of Hines Creek and Riley Creek (my photo on another blog post of Hines Creek was taken from that foot bridge on the right)

Denali National Park Hiking

Posted on July 2, 2021 by geek

One day in Denali was completely full with the bus tour and with rafting. We planned another day for hiking, and the hiking in Denali, just around the visitor’s center is wonderful. We didn’t have time to do much hiking, but based on the maps, you could spend a couple of days hiking just on the trails. Then of course, you could spend lots more time doing off trail hiking. Right now, so many wild flowers are in bloom that the trails are full of color. The trees are green, and it is just wonderful.

Bike Path back to visitor’s center

Trees lining the trail

Hines Creek

Arctic Ground Squirrel in the parking lot

Spruce Grouse (hen with two chicks in the front)

Hedysarum alpinum (Alpine Sweetvetch)

Chamerion angustifolium (Fireweed)

Denali National Park Bus Tour

Posted on July 1, 2021 by geek

From Anchorage, we took the train to Denali for the next leg of our Alaskan vacation. We took a bus tour of Denali Tundra Wilderness Tour, which takes goes about 60 miles into the park from the visitor’s center. The bus driver was pretty good about stopping whenever wildlife was spotted. Unfortunately, most of the wildlife is pretty far away or hidden behind trees. Good for the wildlife, but bad for taking photographs of the the wildlife. I took numerous out of focus photos of caribou, several moose behind a tree photos, and an impressive number of photos of far away bear sides or butts where you can barely identify them as bears. The tour also stops at several gorgeous overlooks including the last stop of Stony Hill, which provides impressive views of Denali.

Teklanika River

Toklat River

Denali from Stoney Hill Overlook

Polychrome Overlook

Bears

Caribou

Hedysarum boreale (boreal sweetvetch)

Castilleja elegans (elegant Indian paintbrush)

Anemone parviflora (Small-Flowered Anemone)

Kenai Fjords Cruise

Posted on June 27, 2021 by geek

From our train trip to Seward, we then took a cruise from Seward around Resurrection Bay and Aialik Bay in Kenai Fjords National Park. It was an amazing six hour cruise around gorgeous scenery. There was beautiful tree-lined rocky shores and numerous glaciers. We also saw several humpback whales, harbor seals, a sea otter, and numerous birds, including puffins (one of my favorite birds).

Thumb Cove

Puffin

Humpback whale, mother and calf

Sea otter

Near entrance to Aialik Bay

Aialik Glacier

Harbor seals in front of Aialik Glacier

Humpback whale

Skee Glacier

Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic

Posted on June 27, 2021 by geek

We arrived in Anchorage a few days ago, and yesterday we took a day trip to Seward to take a cruise to Kenai Fjords. To get to Seward, we took Alaska Railroad’s Coastal Classic Train from Anchorage. The route was gorgeous. We traveled along the coast of Turnagain Arm before cutting across through glacial valleys where the Kenai Peninsula connects to the main part of Alaska. We traveled along the Placer River including through several tunnels before then traveling along the Trail River. The trip was worth the train ride alone, even if we had nothing to do in Seward. Along the way we also spotted sheep, moose, and lots and lots of birds.

Turnagain Arm

Placer River

Spencer Glacier

Placer River

Trail Creek

Upper Trail Lake

Lower Trail Lake

Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area

Posted on June 22, 2021 by geek

We spent the say at Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, which has lots of hiking trails to see the area. Some of the trails are to provide good views of the glacier, some are for hiking in the woods, and some are few viewing the salmon and the bears when the salmon are spawning. There salmon were not here yet, but we got really lucky and saw a momma bear and her two cubs. The visitor’s center has photos and a film that shows just how much the glacier has retreated. One of the trails we hiked on also has markers showing where the ice used to be, and the retreat of the ice is incredible. The area is lovely, and one thing I liked was how basically anything that was not moving was covered in lichen and moss.

View of the Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls

Mendenhall Glacier

Nugget Falls

Steep Creek. Streams from mountain runoff are everywhere

Steep Creek flowing into glacial lake

Black bear and one of her cubs

Second black bear cub was originally sleeping in the tree before joining mom and sibling

Lichen and moss on a boulder

Lupines

Small waterfall on Trail of Time trail

Small creek

Gold Creek Flume Trail

Posted on June 22, 2021 by geek

The rain stopped for just a little bit this afternoon, so we went hiking on the Gold Creek Flume Trail, which is close to downtown Juneau. As far as I can tell, the entire trail is on top of a flume that takes water from the Gold Creek to a hydroelectric plant. With the exception of a small segment where a rock slide seems to be on top of the flume, it is a really easy trail to walk on, as you are on wooden planks. It is a nice hike through the woods with views of Gold Creek below and the mountains above. The western end is where the flume heads down the mountain. The eastern end seems to be where the flume separates from Gold Creek.

The western end of the trail has a very Alaska warning sign because Alaska. Only missing warning about bears.

Flume flows down the mountain

Trail is on top of the flume through the woods

Small waterfalls everywhere

Rock slide area

Waterfalls are visible in the mountains and streams are frequent near trail

Eastern end appears to be where flume is separated from Gold Creek

Gold Creek at western end of trail

Tracy Arm Fjord

Posted on June 21, 2021 by geek

During my first full day in Juneau, I took a day cruise to Tracy Arm to see the fjord and glaciers. We saw two glaciers, Sawyer Glacier and South Sawyer Glacier, which really used to be the same glacier. Along the way to see the glaciers, we traveled through the beautiful Tracy Arm Fjord. The fjord has numerous former glacier valleys, river valleys, and water falls. The fjord has numerous icebergs, generally rather small icebergs, that have broken off the glaciers. Many of the larger icebergs serve as resting places for harbor seals. We also were lucky enough to see a black bear eating mollusks or something on the shore. Later, while headed back to Juneau, there were Steller sea lions and more harbor seals on the Midway Islands.

Iceberg

Tracy Arm fjord

Sawyer Glacier

Up close view of Sawyer Glacier

South Sawyer Glacier

Up close view of South Sawyer Glacier

Harbor seal

Harbor seals

Black bear

Steller sea lions

Ketchikan hiking

Posted on June 17, 2021 by geek

Ketchikan has lots of hiking trails, and many of them are close to the town. We went hiking on the Rainbird trail this afternoon. Ketchikan is located in a temperate rainforest, and the Rainbird trail goes through that temperate rainforest ecosystem right to the side of the town. The trail is located in an area that was last logged over 50 years ago, so it does not have the old growth trees, but it is pretty none the less. The northern trailhead warns that the trail is not maintained, and they are not kidding. We lost the trail a couple of times. The southern half of the trail is maintained and is much easier to hike.

Ferns and moss growing on a fallen tree stump

Moss and ferns growing near a stream

New tree growng on top of a fallen tree

Cedar trees and ferns everywhere

Trail through the forest

At the south end of the trail, there are spectacular lookouts

Moss growing on a fallen tree

Berries

Wild flowers

Snorkeling in Alaska

Posted on June 16, 2021 by geek

While planning for my vacation in Alaska, I learned that there is a company, appropriately named Snorkel Alaska, that leads snorkeling tours near Ketchikan. If there is a way for me to get into the water, especially if it means seeing some cool wildlife, I am there. This morning I went on my guided tour. They supplied all the equipment including a wetsuit, hood, gloves, etc. Perhaps maybe my toes got cold, but that was it. The wetsuit did its job. I got to snorkel around for over an hour seeing sea urchins, sea stars, fish, sea cucumbers, sea weed, and so much more. It was one of the best snorkeling tours I have taken. I love snorkeling in warm water and seeing coral, but this cold water provided so much to see.