Revised 2011 bird total:
437 species

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Days twelve and and thirteen of Alaska trip - The Denali experience

We planned to take the bus into Denali National Park for three days, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Yesterday we went in 25 out of the 90 miles into the park and just got an idea of how the bus system works and get an idea on where to hike.  We were fortunate to be able to meet Alan, the park's bird expert.  I told him some of my target birds like Lapland Longspur, Rock Ptarmigan, and White-tailed Ptarmigan and he said the hike to do was Stony Dome.  For Long-tailed Jeager he said Sable Pass.  We did Sable Pass yesterday but no jeager, there was a nice Golden Eagle there though but not a year bird.

Today my dad and I hiked Stony Dome but it was too steep that we couldn't make it to the summit.  We made it about half way up and on that part of it we got terrific looks at one of my target life birds for the hike - Rock Ptarmigan.  We saw lots of awesome wildlife in Denali today - caribou with babies, grizzly bears (10), moose (bull and cow with calf), red foxes, dall sheep, and more.  This evening while hiking on this property I came across one of my most wanted life birds - the Pine Grosbeak.

Awesome day!

3 comments:

  1. What a great site and exciting adventure. Will you make it to Fairbanks on your trip? If so, stop by and visit us at the Alaska Bird Observatory. We would love to meet you.
    Best wishes,
    Nicole Pearce
    Executive Director at The Alaska Bird Observatory

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  2. hi Nicole... Gabriel's mom here. Unfortunately didn't make it all the way to Fairbanks, but hopefully on our next trip. We absolutely fell in love with Alaska and will be back:)

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  3. Hi Nicole

    I'm back in Virginia now but nope, unfortunately didn't make it to Fairbanks as my mom said but hopefully next trip. Alaska was amazing, what a magnificent place. The birds are spectacularly amazing! We'll be back within a couple of years.

    Nice to hear from the Alaska Bird Observatory!

    Gabriel (KestrelSwan)

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