Itinerary

While the itinerary is posted here at the top of this blog, you will need to read it from the bottom up to be in chronological order.

We did a lot of planning for our 7 weeks of traveling using the Internet and Alaska travel brochures - both the state and the major cities have excellent annual publications. When we requested the state promotional material, we began receiving city, cruise ship and tour info. Our road bible was the Milepost which also covers British Colombia and Alberta road networks. This publication is priceless! I think the only things missing were the exact locations of all the ups and downs in the road due to frost heaves and permafrost! Save a few bucks and get the previous year's book. The other 'bible' was George C. West's milepost approach to birding, Birder's Guide to Alaska. Jan 2009 publication, for my birding needs.

The Big Picture

May 4-June 4. Fly Albany, NY to Anchorage, AK. Rent RV. Travel AK's southeast road system
June 4-June 8: Nome
June 9-June11: Juneau
June12-13: south on State ferry Inside Passage to Prince Rupert, Canada
June 14-15: CANADA - Canadian Skeena RR across BC to Jasper, Alberta
June 16 -24: Rent car. Jasper and Banff NP, Canmore and fly home from Calgary.

The DAILY Schedule

May 4 - Flew Albany, NY to Anchorage - arv 3:30pm. Picked up RV from Great Alaskan Holidays - Night ANC
May 5 - S to Potter Marsh, Girdwood, Portage Glacier. Night Portage Glacier
May 6 - to Seward for pm boat trip Resurrection Bay with Renown Tours. Night Seward waterfront
May 7 - Seward Sealife Museum. (the first of MANY museums!) Exit Glacier and drive to Homer. Night Anchor Point SP north of Homer
May 8 - Homer Seabird Festival - (May 7-10). am boat trip to Gull Isl. Area birding. Night Homer.
May 9 - Festival events/birding. Night Homer
May 10 - Festival events/birding. Pratt Museum of Homer. (Excellent.) Night Homer.
May 11 - head N. Night Portage Glacier
May 12 - to Anchorage. Native American Heritage Center. Night Eagle River n of ANC
May 13 - Hike to Thunder Falls, onto Palmer along Glenn Hwy. To Independence Mine - still closed due to snow. Night Palmer area.
May 14 - Leisure drive Glenn Hwy. Night Lake Louise Rd.
May 15 - SNOW and rain. To Glennallen then N on Richardson Hwy. Night Paxon Lake campgd. BLM facility.
May 16 - Drive Denali Hyw 25 miles W. Night Tangle Lakes
May 17 - back to Paxson. visit Fish Hatchery. to Delta Jct. vicinity. Night Clearwater River, State Rec Area (SRA)
May 18 - Delta Jct. Sullivan Museum, birding Fort Greeley Army Post. Night Rika's Road House
May 19 - Tour Rika's Road House. North (now on AK Hyway) to Quartz Lake SRA for night
May 20 - NW to Fairbanks. Night Chena River SRA (huge damned river/lake to prevent repeat of 1967 flooding of Fairbanks.
May 21 - Fairbanks. Community Museum/Mushing Museum. Creamer's Field (birds!), Pioneer Park (altho shops and museums not to open until 23. Night Tanana Valley CG
May 22 - Fairbanks. UofFairbanks Museum of the North. Night MuskOx Research Center parking lot!
May 23 - Fairbanks. Free Museum Day. Ice Museum, Air Museum and SSNenana stern wheeler at Pioneer Pk and shops, night MuskOx Ctr.
May 24 - Head NE to Chena Hot Springs, Night SRA pull off.
May 25 - Hike Angel Rocks, tour Chena Hot Springs Resort. Night Red Squirrel SRA
May 26 - Fairbanks. more Pioneer Park museums. Night Tanana Valley CG.
May 27 - S on Parks Hyway. Night Nenana - heavy rain
May 28 - S to Denali NP. Drive in to mile 15. Ranger talk at CG. Night Riley CG
May 29 - Denali NP. Dog Sled Demo. Hiking. Night Savage CG.
May 30 - Denali NP. Shuttle into Tolkat River (road still closed beyond). Ranger talk. Night Savage CG
May 31 - S from Denali NP to Cantwell. E on Denali Hyway. Night Joe Pond and Jerry Ponds. Very productive birding! 37 species of birds and 2 cavorting moose!

June 1 - S on Parks Hyway. Night roadside.
June 2 - Wasilla - AK Transportation & Industrial Museum. Page Museum. Night Finger Lake SRA.
June 3 - Back to Palmer to visit Independence Mine State Historic Park (must do!) Night RV park
June 4 - Fly to Nome
June 5-8 - NOME birding
June 9-11 - Juneau. Mendenhall Glacier, Tracy Arm Fjord, AK State Museum. Nights Driftwood Motel.
June 11-13 AK State Ferry. Kennicott south on Inside Passage. 2 nights on ferry.
June 13 - Prince Rupert, CANADA. Night Pioneer Hostel
June 14 - Board Skenna Train. 12 hrs. Night Prince George.
June 15 - Skeena Train to Jasper. 8 hrs. Night Seldom In home stay, Jasper
June 16-18 - Jasper hiking and viewing and Jasper Yellowhead Museum. Fabulous! Night Seldom In
June 19 - S on Icefields Pkway through Jasper and Banff NPs (windy and rainy). Colombia Icefields, Lake Louise. Night Banff Border Lodge, Canmore - just outside Banff NP south gate
June 20 - Hike/drive Canmore area trails and Provincial parks. Night Banff Border Lodge.
June 21 - Into Banff NP to Banff town. Banff Park Museum National Historic Site, Whyte Museum, Native Peoples Museum, town walk, Hot Springs -old-view, new-use! rainy. Night Banff Border Lodge
June 22 - Hike trail Canmore area. (rain) To Calgary. Night U of Calgary, dorm/hostel
June 23 - Explore farmlands N of Calgary. Hike Big Hill Springs Provincial Park. Night UofC.
June 24 - Return Avis rental. HOME Calgary to Minn/St Paul to Albany, NY. Night E Dorset, VT!! zzzzzzzz!

BIRDS! The final chapter.

The defining dates for our AK trip were the Katchemak Bay Shorebird Festival in Homer the first week in May (there is also a birding festival in Cordova that same time) and catching the migration/vagrants in Nome AK the first week in June. There was great expectation of actually seeing shorebirds resplendent in breeding plumages. The birds did not disappoint. An added reward was witnessing the fun and marvel of courtship displays, 'dances', vocalizations and antics. Did I know that Yellowlegs perform this wonderful aerial display with LOUD chips and calls - day and night?? Then those Red-necked Grebes... on one lake there were at least 6 pairs within sight. They paddle their bodies into an upright posture and form a symbolic heart shape beak to beak with necks curved...to say nothing of the caterwauling and calling!


One of the best displays I witnessed were from Semi-palmated Plovers. (From my journal notes.) W end Denali Hyw. 9 pm. Still light. A low cackling/clicking sound alerted me to look outside our RV. A SP Plover was frantically scrapping out a hole in the dried mud - pushing it back with the feed, head totally down in the hole. Aha! Nest building??


A second bird scurried in (female?) and checked out the fit of the hole. The first bird (male!) postured above with tail fanned and wings pointed out and down. Copulation observed. 'She' left and 'he' resumed digging, this time working on two 'holes'. She came in again to check the hole. Display occurred but I did not see copulation. She left. He continued to scratch and also began to pick up small pieces of dried grass and sticks to 'throw' around the edge of the hole. He last seen scuttling sideways towards her and then they flew off.

There are opportunities for boat trips, shorebird identification with many experts/opinions and great lectures during the Homer shorebird festival. During the three days we were there, I 'ticked' 72 species adding Long-tailed Jaeger, Red-faced Cormorant and Tufted Puffin to my life list, and Wandering Tattler, Pacific Golden Plover and Bar-tailed Godwit to my US species list. Highlights were the massive rafts of Common Murres, nesting colonies of Black-legged Kittiwake, hundreds of rusty backed! (not all grey!!) Western Sandpipers, a chance to compare the differences between all three species of Godwits - Marbled, Bar-tailed and Hudsonian and hearing the songs of Fox (color much grayer than in eastern birds) and Lincoln's Sparrows. The Kenai Peninsula is definitely the place to be in AK during spring migration.

As we moved through drivable AK during the next three weeks, it was mostly ducks, grebes and loons that caught my eye while Willow and White-tailed Ptarmigan and Sharp-tailed Grouse boosted my life list. Again, lots of courtship activity... a gyrfalcon chasing a Golden Eagle in Denali NP, and robins and ravens hanging on to their status as 'seen every day' birds.

Nome lived up to its reputation with 'highly variable' weather. We arrived and left on fine weather days, but the three in between were either extremely windy, cool, rainy or all of the above. Nonetheless, our independent birding group 'ticked' target birds such as the Aleutian Tern, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Bluethroat, Yellow Wagtail and Rock Ptarmigan. Additional lifers for me were Cackling Goose, Arctic Loon, Parasitic Jaeger, Hawfinch (this year's unexpected vagrant) and Northern Wheatear. Unfortunately I missed Arctic Warbler and Emperor Goose seen by my birding group the day we left.

The total species list for AK was 154. This represented 19 U.S. life birds (Seven I have seen in places other than U.S.) with 12 being first time ever sighting. The birding on the remainder of our trip through the Inside Passage and across western Canada was generally uneventful. That's not to say we didn't enjoy the Bald Eagles, Swainson's Hawks north of Calgary and the last bird seen the day before we returned to VT - a Gray Partridge, lifer # 13! Not bad considering the 'holes' in my US life list. To top it off, when we got home, a Henslow Sparrow hung around in nearby MA long enough for me to 'tick' another year lifer. I would be glad to provide a complete species list to interested parties. Contact: stewdor7@comcast.net.

HOME!

Five Lakes Trail, Jasper NP

One of the best things about a vacation is coming home!!! - being in your own bed; laying your head on your own, smelly pillow; having your own space again! Even catching up on the mail, the weeds, the friendships, the bird happenings, the routines is a good thing too.

We arrived home June 24 to lots of humidity and rain almost every day since. Guess it has pretty much been the same since we left. We never realized how dry AK and the western Canadian are. Golly- the weather had to be one of the best parts of the trip.

Here it is - this post date is really July 4, 2009. It's taken me that long to catch up around here and finish this AK trip blog. At some point, our pictures will be labeled and posted someplace to share with any interested travelers. Certainly can provide lots of travel advise for anyone AK bound.

Additional comments and thoughts: The Canadian Rockies were every bit as spectacular as AK. If you only could go to one place, I would suggest Jasper and Banff NPs.

The AK national vehicle is either a pickup truck or an ATV!

AK must have more churches per capita than any other place in the world!

And 7 weeks away from home was too long! But we have lots of great memories - if only we can remember all of them! even some of them!

And Sarah Pailin announced her resignation as governor of AK on July 3! What would she have done if she was VP???

Calgary

Our last day was in Calgary where we stayed in a dorm at the U of Calgary! Remember those days of white concrete walls, 2 beds, 2 desks, (only) 1 chair, small closet and the bathrooms down the hall shared with 20-30 others!!!! How did we ever do THAT?

There is some great open agricultural land north of Calgary which is rapidly being eaten up with large developments with row after serpentine row of houses only a few feet apart... Ugly!

The last evening I went on a bird walk along the Bow River Park which runs through the city. As we returned to the parking lot, the leader asked me if I had seen a Gray Partridge in my travels yet? Heck, that bird wasn't even on my radar as a possible!!! It was life bird # 20 during the trip!!! What a great way to end!

Canmore

Canmore is a lovely town/city just to the south of Banff NP with extensive hiking trails, steep mountains and vistas, wildlife, proximity to Canada Provincial Parks and somewhat cheaper accommodations than can be found in the parks. It's every bit as worthy of visiting as the NPs. However, one must always be prepared for inclimate weather in these mountains! Guess what? Umbrellas aren't ideal for hiking in the woods! Best utilize a convenient rock overhang to wait out the rain.

Banff town

The next day we drove back into the park to visit the wonderful museums (yes!! more museums!) in Banff. The town is really very historic and interesting despite the horrendous influx of tourist. (We were told it is far more crowded in July and August!)

The Banff Park Museum was put together mostly by one man (1903) with the intent to showcase all the animals and other fauna and flora in the park. It was thought that that was the only way people would ever get to see the treasures in the park. Fortunately, a new philosophy now prevails - see the treasures in the wild. Nonetheless, the building and museum contents have been 'resurrected' and is a great visit, esp. on a rainy day!

The Whyte museum had a opening exhibit of Robert Bateman's (wildlife artist extraordinaire!) work as well as the exhibit explaining the origins of the Banff 'settlement' - (gold and hot springs) and the connection to the Luxton and McDougall families.

Lastly, the Luxton Museum of the Plains celebrates the history of the Native People. Norman Luxton was an important figure in Banff's development and a friend of the Stony Indians. He was a passionate collector of native artifacts and handiwork which is displayed through authentic activity scenes.

The Cave and Basin National Historic Site of Canada commemorates the birth place of Banff NP and the Canadian NP system. Arguments over the ownership of hotsprings here were settled when the government stepped in, in 1885, and declared the area a national park. The facilty was closed to the public in the 90's? when an endanger snail was discovered living in the warm waters (!) and when keeping the facility updated and open became cost prohibitive. The Upper Hot Springs remain open and gave me a warm, soothing bath to end the day in Banff! Course when I went to find Charlie and the car in the parking lot - it was teaming buckets of rain!!!

Lake Louise and Banff NP

We stopped at Lake Louise (in the mist) for the obligatory visit to the Chateau and a drive around the town. It was relatively busy with other visitors. As we continued south for our night in Canmore, just outside Banff NP south gate, we enjoyed one spectacular rainbow!