Last Trip to the Last Frontier

Well, this is the final chapter of my adventures in Alaska - at least until Jessica and I make it up there on our own sometime. I am moving on to another program at work, and we aren't launching until mid-2010. From what I understand, most of the activity will be in Chandler, so no traveling for me for a while - at least not for work.

I was at Fort Greely from 5/11 to 5/29 this time, and the weather allowed me to get around a bit and see some parts of the state that I hadn't previously seen.

My past experience of driving around Alaska has shown me that moose are the dominant large mammals around the state - or at least the ones that you see the most on the roads. This trip was different... I easily saw more than twice as many caribou as any other animal (I think my moose count was around 8 or 9). This one was hanging out on the asphalt before I started waiting for it to pose for me.


Had I been in any other part of the country, I'm sure flowers would have been blooming everywhere. Temperatures around the state ranged from the mid-30s to the mid-50s for the most part, so spring was pretty much just beginning. The only flowers that I could get a decent picture of were these Pasque Flowers, or Pulsatilla patens, for the botanists among you. They were on a hiking trail in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.


There are some pretty useful and informative signs in the great state of Alaska. Not all of them state blatantly obvious information... although some do...


I had never seen a porcupine in the wild prior to this trip. It seems that all animals have some ability or feature that helps protect them from predators. I found, as I was taking pictures of this guy, that the porcupine was not blessed with speed to get away from attacking animals. I startled him and he started to "run" away. As he ran, I walked next to him and snapped pictures. I just followed him around for a while as I'm sure he got more and more frustrated with me.


The "Big 5" of animals to see in Alaska are moose, caribou, bears, wolves, and Dall sheep. I finally got to see some sheep this time around (I still haven't seen wolves or bears in Alaska - gives me something to look for next time, I guess). These sheep were up on a hillside in Denali National Park.


This is Horseshoe Lake in Denali National Park. It was the destination of a very nice, short hike near the entrance of the park.


As always, I have a lot more photos to show if anyone is interested. I saw (and photographed) trumpeter swans, beavers, ptarmigans, bald eagles, more caribou, more porcupines, mount McKinley, ground squirrels, ducks, and Santa Claus (North Pole, Alaska is between Fairbanks and Fort Greely). Enjoy!