Denali Discovery Hike--Part IV

Hiking in Denali is spectacular on so many levels--beautiful expansive views, fascinating tundra foliage, the wildlife communities, and unique geographical features with intriguing stories.

Part of the reason the geography of Denali is so fascinating is that you can actually see for great distances and imagine glaciers carving out the valleys over centuries. With the exception of a few park buildings (or a tent) placed sparingly, to educate and offer comfort for visitors, there are few buildings, no lines of cars, and no crowds. The wilderness is preserved and protected all the way down to how many hikers can actually cross the area of tundra that I walked across in this hike.

Above, you can get an idea of how expansive the land feels as you see how small my fellow hikers appear against the view beyond. In the southeastern United States where I live, in Tennessee, it is impossible to preserve our natural areas with this kind of purity simply because of population density.  Even the air and the water in the Great Smoky Mountains--one of the most visited national parks in the USA with over 9 million visitors in 2011--can not escape pollution carried by the wind and water from development and industry.

Knowing that makes exploring this pristine wilderness even more awe inspiring.  It's ruggedness and wide-open terrain offer a vastly different experience from the tree-covered Southern Appalachians that are familiar to me.

That difference made me want to slow everything down and enjoy every plant and lichen, take in every color, follow every path carved by the river. the wind, the caribou. As it was, I paused whenever I could, and lingered as long as I dared without holding up the hike's progression.

Above and below, you see the views we enjoyed as we rested and had a snack at the edge of the river shelf before continuing our trek back to the road where a shuttle bus would eventually pick us up for a ride to Eielson Visitor's Center.

Hiking in tundra is a unique feeling because the ground is soft and spongy.  Your boots sink down into the moss and short cropped foliage with each step and in some places, deeper than others.  Below, my boot all but disappears.

Below you see tundra plant communities that are so much fun to explore. Just look at the palette of colors! You can see why it was tempting to spend more time with each plant.  The white growths are reindeer lichen and the purple/red leaves, bog cranberry.

Below, a fun find--a harebell still in bloom, rising above blueberry leaves, lichen, mountain avens and yellow willow.

Above, mountain aven leaves (left), raindeer lichen and bright red bearberry leaves.  Below, its down hill to the river bed, where we saw our ptarmigan earlier, and then up hill most of the way on our return hike to the park road.

Below, Ranger Bob King (right) entertains as we wait for the park shuttle to arrive.

Below, views of the area we have just hiked, taken from the Eielson Visitor's Center.   The shelf you see in the distance and to the left of the gorge is where we rested for lunch.

This is the fourth post in a series about my Discovery Hike in Denali National Park and Preserve lead by Denali Ranger, Bob King.  To see the entire hike series click here.  Scroll to the bottom for the first post.

Links and Resources:
Click this link to view all my posts on Denali National Park and Preserve.  To see all posts on my visit to Alaska in August and September of 2012, visit Alaska

Denali National Park and Preserve
Willow Ptarmigan
Alaska wild berries

Denali's caribou herd 

For an incredible read about caribou:  Being Caribou by Karsten Huer.  Visit the Being Caribou website.

Denali Discovery Hike--Part III

We continued our hike toward the shelf overlook after crossing the creek and a fun encounter with Willow Ptarmigan.   (click here to see previous posts)

While hiking in the wilderness it is always advisable to be on the lookout for grizzlies.  A large group like this makes enough noise with movement to pretty well let any wildlife know humans are around, however, chest high willows can obscure the view of a feeding bear or even a sleeping bear.

 

Above we stop to examine a bear dig.  Grizzly bears dig down through the tundra soil to unearth roots, voles and ground squirrels, as well as, the foods the animals store.  The freshness of the dig gives an indication of how long ago the bear was present.  This dig was hours old, but later we came upon a large depression in the foliage where a bear had recently taken a nap.  Denali bears nap and feed all hours of day and night.  

Grizzly bears are omnivores and eat foliage and berries along with meat.  Below you see a stand of soapberries, a favored food in August and September.  (Not a flavor I enjoyed!)

Below:  a clump of saxifrage

Above and below, the fire red autumn leaves of the Fireweed.  

Above a variety of lousewort, possibly whorled-leaf lousewort.  Below, the entrance to an arctic ground squirrel's burrow.

Arctic ground squirrel, above.  In one hunting technique, Grizzly bears are known to slam their forepaws against the ground to cause the earth to tremor in an effort to scare a ground squirrel out of its burrow.  In late summer, juvenile ground squirrels are dispersing from their natal homes and dig temporary, shallow burrows.  These shallow tunnels are easier for bears to dig than a deeply tunneled family burrow.

Above and below, tall cotton grass.

Below, flowering Sitka Burnet

Below you see our views as we approach the tundra shelf.  Beyond is the glacial river.

Caribou paths carved in the tundra, below.

The caribou have already begun their migration, but have left behind trodden trails and an occasional hoof print (below).

Next:  Discovery Hike IV and more about the Arctic Ground Squirrel

For more information about Denali's caribou herd click the link.

And for an incredible read about caribou:  Being Caribou by Karsten Huer.  Visit the Being Caribou website.

This is the third post in a series about my Discovery Hike in Denali National Park and Preserve lead by Denali Ranger, Bob King.  To see the entire series click here.  Scroll to the bottom for the first post.

Links and Resources:
Click this link to view all my posts on Denali National Park and Preserve.  To see all posts on my visit to Alaska in the fall of 2012, visit Alaska

Denali National Park and Preserve
Willow Ptarmigan
Alaska wild berries

Willow Ptarmigans in Denali

I traveled to Alaska to see Alaska's land and wildlife and my wish list was so long, every encounter held something magical for me.  Seeing a group of Willow Ptarmigans (Lagopus lagopus) under shrubby willows growing along side a stream on our disco hike gave me exceptional delight.  

Thanks to Ranger Bob, who alerted us to their presence so we wouldn't march right up to them, we were able to get some good looks before our hiking group was ready to push on and cross the stream.  I was lucky enough to have a second encounter two days later near the road and in a vehicle that made a perfect blind for these close-ups images.

The Willow Ptarmigan is the largest and most numerous of the North American ptarmigan.  It makes its home in arctic tundra and alpine habitat during the summer months, liking moist tundra with low shrubs of willow and dwarf birch.  The willow subspecies molts almost continuously from spring until late fall, changing its appearance as the season's foliage changes. 

The plumage of both sexes is entirely white in the winter.  In the spring the male acquires a rufous head and neck with the body remaining white during the breeding season, and during the summer the body is brown, with the wing and belly remaining white and the tail black.  As fall advances, the rich rufous brown becomes more grayish to match color changes in the tundra and gradually as the season progresses into winter, more and more white appears.  Clearly camouflage is a key survival strategy for this ground dwelling species.

In the image above you get a nice look at the white wing as this bird stretches.  Also notice the black tail feathers and the feathered legs and feet.  The feathers on the toes serve two functions:  insulating the toes for warmth and reducing heat loss, and providing a larger surface that acts like snowshoes to facilitate walking on top of snow.

The toe nails/claws grow longer in the winter and have the special function of digging through snow.  One of the ptarmigan's arctic and alpine adaptations includes roosting in burrows during the night.  I read two descriptions of how this is done.  In one method, the bird lands on a soft, deep snow bank and digs a burrow for cover.  In the other method, the bird flies toward the snow surface, folds its wings and plunges through.  Once under the surface, the bird moves forward horizontally several body lengths and often causes the "tunnel" to collapse creating a cozy chamber.  The "ptarmigan warms its own surroundings to near the bottom of its thermoneutral zone, the range of temperatures where it does not have to shiver." (Ronald L. Smith, Interior and Northern Alaska:  A Natural History)

A good view of the black tail above and the darker grayish feathers on the back.  This was the plumage stage in early September.  In the summer months Willow Ptarmigan eat the fruits of blueberries, cranberries and crowberries, and the leaves of willows and blueberries, plus a variety of insects.  In the winter the buds and twigs of willows make up 80% of their diet.

Be sure and take a look at the Willow Ptarmigan link below showing plumage stages and, as you scroll down the page, a video of a family of ptarmigan.  The male Willow Ptarmigan stays with the female and young throughout the breeding season and acts as a guard to protect the family.

This is the second post in a series about my Discovery Hike in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, lead by Denai Ranger, Bob King.  To see the first post click here.
Next:  More hiking discoveries in the tundra

Links and Resources:
Click this link to view all my posts on Denali National Park and Preserve.  To see all posts on my visit to Alaska in the fall of 2012, visit Alaska

Denali National Park and Preserve
Willow Ptarmigan
Alaska wild berries
bog blueberries

Denali Discovery Hike with Ranger Bob

I'm taking you back to Alaska with me and we're going on a Disco Hike in Denali National Park and Preserve.

Disco is shorthand for Discovery Hike, a hike that is planned by a ranger, transects a selected area of the wilderness and is charted so that no more than two hikes can be made in that same area during a single summer season.

Ranger Bob (third from left) giving us some orientation comments before our hike. We arrived from the Toklat River Tent by shuttle bus and began our hike in the vicinity of the Eielson Visitor's Center, mile 66 on the Park Road.

Besides the goal of offering guided hikes to educate visitors, these hikes are designed to protect the integrity of the wilderness and create the least amount of impact to the plant and animal communities in the tundra.   There are a limited number of established trails in the park; the remainder of visitor hiking is done off trail in the wilderness by permit.

Red Bearberry leaves and white/gray Reindeer Lichen, a winter staple for caribou.

September is a beautiful time in Denali.  The tundra is vibrant with fall foliage, brilliant in color and ever changing  weather conditions and lighting.  Every step brings more breath-taking beauty and discovery, and it is especially exciting to experience some of the plants in the tundra up close.

 

Above and below you see "Dead Man's Fingers" reaching up among green crowberry leaves and bog blueberries.  The finger-like fungus sometimes exhibits a waving motion.

September 3rd was my second day in the park with Rangers Bob and Tina King as my host and hostess during my stay.  Our forecast for this hike was light rain, winds gusting to 60 mph and temps in the 40's F.  You can see we are bundled up, primarily to block the wind.  Fortunately, the rain remained misty, giving us very tolerable conditions.

We are headed for that distant shelf ridge you see in the above images, to rest for lunch along its edge and enjoy the view created by the glacial rivers.  Along the way we stopped to sample the wild bog blueberries.

The height of tundra vegetation is limited by the depth of the soil.  Below the soil  lies perma frost, a layer of ice that remains year around, partially melting during summer months and refreezing during the winter.  Growth height is also determined by genetic properties that keep the plant from growing high enough to be damaged by the winds that blow across the tundra.

I had the good fortune of not only sampling tundra blueberries  but also enjoying their tasty tartness over pound cake with fresh whipped cream at a cordial dinner in Fairbanks a few days earlier.  Yum!

Above, blueberry leaves among yellow willow and raindeer lichen.

 

We had a descent and a river to cross.  Thanks to the watchful eyes of our leader, we paused and got some good looks at willow ptarmigans foraging under the willow branches.

Next:  A closer look at Alaska's state bird.

Links and Resources:

Click this link to view all my posts on Denali National Park and Preserve.  To see all posts on my visit to Alaska in the fall of 2012, visit Alaska

Denali National Park and Preserve

Willow Ptarmigan
Alaska wild berries
bearberries
bog blueberries