Bucks of Shenandoah

Nice to be home. But after being home for just a couple weeks, I still needed a national park and photography fix. So, headed out to meet some photography friends at Shenandoah this past weekend. Whitetail Deer bucks were the target species. We had decent light/weather Saturday morning and most of Sunday afternoon.

During the 2 days we were able to locate at least a half dozen decent bucks to photograph.

National park wildlife are not hunted, thus have no reason to fear humans, so are habituated our presence and conducive for photography without changing their behaviour.


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Polar Bears - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Sorry again for another belated post. Been busy since arriving back home in Virginia. As promised, this post contains images from a trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The goal was to see polar bears in the wild. Things could not have gone better with my day and a half there. After leaving Denali, drove north and flew from Fairbanks to Barter Island (on the north end of the ANWR and 120 miles from the North Pole) and met with a local Inupiat Guide Robert Thompson. Robert came recommended and his Arctic knowledge and philosophy on life were profound.

The flight over the Brooks Range was amazing. I was thankful for good weather. I was the only passenger on the prop plane and was surrounded by supplies for the community.

Kaktovik was the name of the Inupiat town that I flew into. The town population is close to 300 folks. The town is one of the most remote communities in Alaska, with the closest road being 170 miles away. If you enlarge the Google Earth image below, to the left of the push pin is the location of the town site and ice landing strip.


The push pin is the location of where a bone yard was located. A photo of the bone yard is below. If all goes well, the community is able to harvest two subsistence Bowhead whales a year. After harvesting the whale, the remains are transported to this bone yard location. The longer hooked shaped items are whale skulls of prior harvested whales.

After arrival, in a few hours, the polar bears began to arrive to the bone yard site. The bears are attracted to the remaining meat/blubber as you can see from the images below.


The bears came relatively close to our viewing location. Robert was armed in the event we had any problems. I was amazed at how much larger these bears are than Grizzlies/Brown bears. An adult male averages between 700-1,500 lbs.




On the second day, we went out in a jon boat and cruised the island spit shore across from the push pin in the map above. We saw a number of bears. In the two days I counted 20. Some of the bears were curious and approached the shore as we went by.



The bears were quite playful and entertaining to watch.




While we were out in the boat, Robert commented that due to the calm winds that it might be a good day for the community to harvest a subsistence whale. Lo and behold, shore activity indicated that something may be coming in. We left the water and went to the traditional whale processing site. When the whale arrived the entire community came out to view and help. The whale is brought into the beach with a dozer. The young man in the first photo wasn't going to wait for the equipment to do the job.


A tradition is to allow all the young folks of the community to mount the whale and have their picture taken.

Cutting up the whale is a lengthy process. The whale is divided amongst the community according to traditional rules.




Needless to say this portion of my Alaska season was special. Swear I am the luckiest guy in the world to have been able to experience what I did this summer.

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Denali - Moose

Sorry for the belated post. My last two weeks in Denali were especially busy. As promised, this post's theme will be fall Moose. I observed Moose behavior for my last few weeks concentrating in the traditional Moose rutting area, in Denali National Park, whenever I was not working.


Just prior to the bull Moose loosing their velvet, I was fortunate to find some accessible guys on some hikes. Both of these majestic animals were very close to loosing their velvet.


The Moose begin to loose the velvet around the last week of August. As you can see from the above images, when the velvet begins to fall off the antlers there is some visible blood remaining on them.

During this same time period, I also located this cow and calf during an intimate moment.


When the fall colors arrived in the tundra, during the first week of September, I went out every chance hoping to capture some Moose with colorful backgrounds like second image above.

After the colors were gone and the rut started, I was hoping to locate some battling bulls. I never did find some of the more dominant bulls, but did find these younger guys sparing.


I did find several bulls close to the park road on my photo trips.


During my last week of work, the snow arrived and I was able to photograph the above bull and calf with a snowy backgrounds.


Yep, sorry again for more Mt. McKinley photos. The above images were taken on my very last morning prior to leaving for the season. It was an emotional moment when I came around the park road bend and observed the mountain with it's isolated color. The alpenglow color was just on Denali due to it's height in comparison to the surrounding mountain range. I have never seen the mountain this magenta/pink hue. It was almost like it was saying goodbye.

After leaving the park for the season, I did a two day trip to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. My goal was to photograph Polar Bears in the wild. Things went incredibly well. So, my next post will be Polar Bears images. I am currently on the road with the Camera Gear Lackey who joined me for travels from Alaska to the Canadian Rockies. We are currently in Jasper/Banff National Park. It has been snowing for the last two days. Blue Skies.
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Denali - Caribou & Dall Sheep

Have been busy since my last post using all free time taking photography trips (backpacking and vehicle) into the park. The fall colors in the tundra have been amazing. The two species featured in this post are Caribou and Dall Sheep.


The Caribou in the top image and above is one of the largest males in the park. He is regularly seen in Wonder Lake (far west) area of the park.

This young male was seen on my way out to Wonder Lake. The afternoon sun in the fall tundra made for a nice background.


Sorry, but I had to include the above two images. Know I have inundated you with Mt. McKinley/Denali shots, but every time I see the mountain I am awed. These shots were taken just as the sun began to show some alpenglow on the mountain. The photos were taken at Reflection Pond, which is also in the Wonder Lake area. From this distance the mountain is a tad less than 30 miles away.

After taking a rather strenuous hike to the top of Mount Margaret (4,992 feet) with 35 pounds of photo gear, I was rewarded with a bachelor herd of 5 Dall Sheep rams. I have seen these sheep with binoculars near the summit (they stay in the higher elevations to stay safe from the wolves) from the park road on a number of occasions and really wanted to photograph them.


After photographing the group from a distance I sat down in hopes that the direction they were browsing would allow some closer shots. Lo and behold, they came closer and then actually laid down right adjacent to my location! Needless to say I was thrilled. The last thing I want to do is disturb them.

The moose rut is in full swing. I have been out in the traditional rutting area every chance I get. Next post will be some dynamic bull shots.

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Mount McKinley or Denali

The native Athabascan's referred to Mount McKinley or Denali as "The Great One". Recently with good weather, I was very fortunate to fly the mountain as well view it from one of the park's shuttle buses. Above you can see the mountain from the Denali National Park road, at the Stony area. The sky was as clear as I have seen it since April, with not a cloud in the sky.

After arriving at the Eielson Visitor Center, this was my meager attempt to try to line the NPS US flag up with the ridge line of the lower mountain range. Waiting for the flag to be in the right position, with the wind, took 20 or so images to get the one pictured above.

Flying to Denali aboard a plane with K2 Aviation we were able to get quite close to the mountain. After rising above the clouds, Mt. McKinley was certainly visible and you knew it was the "great one". We were about 7 miles from the mountain when this image was captured.

As we got closer (5 miles away), you could plainly see the difference in elevation of the two peaks. The southern peak, the larger rounded one in the center, is 20,320 feet tall, the highest mountain in North America. The smaller peak to the right, which is the northern peak, is 19,470 feet tall. At this distance, the mountain did not seem to be as overwhelming as it does from the park road at 30 miles away.




Although the sun was adding allot of contrast with the snow covered mountains and shooting through a plane window was a challenge, the mountain range and glacier views were still amazing and fun to photograph. The steadfast curmudgeon "Critter Guy" has certainly broke down during this trip.

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Gates of the Arctic National Park

Visiting Gates of the Arctic National Park was on the list of places to try see, during my off time while working at Denali. So, with an afternoon and 3 rest days, headed north to the park. For those that read this blog on a regular basis, you know I am primarily a wildlife photographer. The scenes at Gates were so inspiring and wildlife so scarce, that I primarily concentrated on landscape images on this trip.
Never being above the arctic circle before, I had no idea what to expect, other than knowing that there would be different looking tundra there and a mountain range.

My concern before leaving was that there would be smoke from forest fires potentially blocking the Dalton Highway/Haul road to Gates. Fires are a regular occurrence in a boreal forest. Fires are actually a good thing because it helps to rejuvenate the forest. Fortunate for me, the fires were just about out. The one fire scene pictured above was one of the few that I incurred along the road.

Traveling on the first part of the road north of Fairbanks, you see a mix of taiga and arctic tundra. Much to my surprise, the landscape was spectacular and much different than what is seen in Denali. During the first section of the road, you see rolling country like what is pictured above. The fireweed was just finishing up for the season, but viable enough to provide some dynamic color to the land.


The oil pipeline also follows the Dalton Highway/Haul road. This pipeline runs 800 miles from Valdez at Prince William Sound to Prudoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. After seeing the pipeline cross this vast land, I am amazed at what a feat this was to accomplish considering the harsh Alaska landscape and environment.

The tractor trailer trucks have the right of way on the road. After meeting some on the road you know who rules. I was lucky after having two rocks hit my windshield from passing trucks and not have a running windshield crack. The road does have some paved areas, but is mostly packed hard earth.


Continuing north you begin to enter an ecotone, leaving the taiga or boreal forest into rolling arctic tundra. Some of the rock formations sticking out of the tundra provided some interesting looking landscape photos.


Further north the Brooks Range started to appear. These were jagged odd shaped mountains, different than those I was used to seeing growing up in the east.


After crossing the Arctic Circle, the Brooks Range had plenty of snow. There was a nice campground/visitor location when you officially crossed the Arctic Circle. A BLM (Bureau of Land Management) volunteer was on hand to provide you with a certificate. He also took my picture.

My plans were to have a plane drop me off into the Gates of the Arctic bush for a two night stay. After checking with a fellow park ranger at the park visitor center, I realized that a flight would be cost prohibitive. We discussed potential hikes into the park. This is a truly wild park, with no roads or maintained trails. To backpack in, you just pick a spot and start hiking. I chose the foothills of one of the mountains on the north side of the range. To get there, I had to drive over Antigun pass, which had plenty of snow and ice. The roads were hazardous and I was glad to make it to the north side of the range. After arriving and backpacking in for about 4.5 miles, I found a decent campsite. The scene you see is what I witnessed late that evening after it stopped snowing.

It was allot colder than I expected. Snow and ice were on the tent in the morning. On the second morning it was so cold when getting ready to leave, I had to put my boots into my sleeping bag to thaw them out so I could put them on. When I arrived at the truck and checked the temperature it was 16 degrees! I learned later that the temps hit 12 degrees that night. Man, was I glad to get back to the truck and turn on the heater.


I only discovered a limited number of species during my two day hike and trip. The Arctic Ground Squirrel and the Rock Ptarmigan are pictured above.

I left early in the morning (3:30 AM) so I could see the sunrise and also have time to supply up in Fairbanks before headed back into Denali. I was fortunate to see the sun touch the top of the mountains like the very top image and what is directly above. These images do not truly capture the beauty of seeing the unique blues in the sky and the vibrant color as the first sun light basked the mountains.

Back on the south side of the range on the way back, the mist in the mountains looked nice.


Also on the way back I photographed a Spruce Grouse and a cow Moose crossing the tundra. The tundra almost had a Monet type look with the fireweed and plants.

The park exceeded my expectations, even with the weather conditions. I was certainly glad to experience another unique part of the world and realize how lucky I am to be able to see and do these things.

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Denali - Photographing on the Park Road

Been dynamic here in Denali lately. I have been out just about every evening since my last post, doing either wildlife photography or social things. I had an opportunity to photograph on the Denali park road with two awesome photographers. One, a Kent Miller, who is a photo-journalism professor from Central Michigan University, The other, Neil Blake, his student intern doing photojournalism studies here in Denali. We photographed the road for two solid days and had good times. The above images were some of my favorites.


Although the wildlife activity was generally slow, we had two exceptional opportunities with a sow and her two cubs close to the road and a rainbow that appeared in the Polychrome area of the park.

Fortunate for us, the mountain (Mt. McKinley) was out as well. The hiker pictured above was from Switzerland. He was passing through when we stopped to photograph Denali. He was the real deal. When I talked to him, he told me he had already spent 10 days in the park back country. If you look closely you can see his beat up water bottle and natural wood hiking stick, no commercial trekking poles for this fellow. I asked if he wouldn't mind posing just to the right of the mountain.


We also had a great opportunity to photograph some Arctic Terns. These amazing birds are always a blast to photograph. After patterning their flight over a portion of a small lake, we could predict where they would return to hover prior to diving in for a minnow. The above are just a few of a series of fun images.

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Valdez- Moose Calf Drama

The scenario started when the Camera Gear Lackey and I first observed a cow and her calf on two different sides of a small island that was located in the middle of a raging river, on our way into Valdez, AK. It was late in the evening and not much light for photography.The day was unusually warm and causing the river water to be high and run fast due to glacier melt.

The pair were separated because the cow was checking for the best place to cross the river. When she located the best spot, she came back and beckoned the calf to cross with her.

Off they went together for the adventurous crossing.

As they started across, there was plenty of sturdy river bottom beneath them.

But, as they started to cross the main stem of the river, both lost their footing and the current took them quickly down stream.

The cow, due to hear long legs, was able to find a footing and get to the shallow water. The calf, on the other hand, was really struggling. We didn't think the little fellow was going to make it. The cow stayed with the little guy, following along, as the current took him down stream.

To our relief, the little calf eventually found some solid footing and it appeared that he was going to be able to make it. Mom was anxiously awaiting.

The reunion was a great one, with mom rewarding the calf with a kiss on his joyous arrival on solid river bottom. The calf was a tad unsteady on his feet after the ordeal. Then they both causally sauntered off into the woods.

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