Whales, Puffins, and Steller Sea Lions: Kenai Fjords National Park

When I was eight, my best friend’s father used to zip us to Stellwagen Bank in his maroon cigarette boat on humid New England summer afternoons. He’d turn off the engine, and we’d drop our jaws at the riveting sight of dozens of humpback whales surfacing just feet away
from us.

At twenty-three, I still feel the tingle of goose bumps when a whale breaches or slips its tail fluke into the sea. A daylong boat cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park at the beginning of my eighth week in Alaska brought me up-close again to these gargantuan marine creatures. We spotted a few humpback and gray whales; plenty of puffins, murres, cormorants, bald eagles, auklets, guillemots, and murrelets; a sea otter, harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and Dall’s porpoise. As a New England-now-California girl, I’m extremely fortunate to have already glimpsed many of these animals.

Hence the best part of my day was Northwestern Glacier. Our boat literally plowed through clouds of haze— and past harbor seals sleeping on icebergs— to reach this tidewater glacier at the very end of Northwestern Fjord. Watching the glacier calve, or release gigantic blocks of ice that roared into the ocean below, was one of the most moving half hours of my life.

Our first wildlife sighting as we left Seward marina— a playful sea otter in Resurrection Bay!

Rock spire

A whale "footprint"! (I failed to capture any fins.)

Weather station

Natural patterns and colors

The algae and guano look like an abstract painting!

Harbor seals

Harbor seals

Steller sea lions

Flying puffin!

More colorful patterns

Neat rock formation

Entering Northwestern Fjord!

Northwestern Fjord

Northwestern Fjord

Northwestern Fjord

Northwestern Glacier!

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

I loved photographing patterns of light.

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Northwestern Glacier

Can you spot the little dots of harbor seals?

Harbor seals on ice

Harbor seal

Harbor seal

Harbor seal

Harbor seal

Sun salutations

Leaving Northwestern Fjord

Northwestern Fjord

Tall waterfall

Waterfall

Back in Resurrection Bay

Resurrection Bay

Maybe someday Restless will sail here.

Resurrection Bay

Farewell Seward!

Palmer and Talkeetna: Denali Sidetrips

Denali was about five hours from Anchorage­, so I was thankful for a few small jaunts to stretch my legs. On my way north, I stopped to see my favorite Alaskan animals at the sunny Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, just east of Sarah Palin’s Wasilla. Musk oxen produce qiviut, one of the warmest fibers in the world, and the farm aims to domesticate them in order to provide Native Alaska women with qiviut for subsistence knitting projects. Oomingmak, the Musk Ox Producers’ Co-operative, sells their beautiful clothing that features the signature pattern of each remote coastal village.

Before leaving Denali, I also attended a phenomenal sled dog demonstration. The park operates a kennel of about thirty Alaskan huskies, a breed unrecognized by the AKC because the dogs are selected for swiftness and personality rather than physical appearance. On my way south, I visited Talkeetna, a town with rich gold mining and railroad history— so much that it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. With its bright sun, historic buildings, and live bands playing, I felt like I was back in small town New England… and indeed marveled at the accomplishments of fellow Bostonians Bradford and Barbara Washburn in Talkeetna’s amazing local museum.

Musk Ox Farm in Matanuska Valley

The Musk Ox Farm reminded me of New Zealand.

Snoozing Alaska husky

Adorable

All of the dogs were so excited to run!

Yawn!

An old home in historic Talkeetna

Another old building in Talkeetna

Nagley's General Store, built in 1921. The candy and supplies hanging everywhere inside reminded me of Montana's recreated ghost towns.

An American Safari: Denali National Park

At the end of my sixth week I spent my absolute favorite Alaskan day in the Interior exploring Denali National Park. I felt like an intruder on the long drive north, as I was often the only car on the road surrounded by nothing but rocky brown mountains, flat yellow tundra, and taiga forest. I savored this radical change in landscape­ so unfamiliar from the temperate rainforest and glaciers of Girdwood. Private vehicles aren’t allowed in the park, so I rode a hardy evergreen school bus all the way to Wonder Lake (about five and a half hours). The journey was almost like going back to first grade— except this was a field trip with strangers. But the sheer euphoria of so many fellow travelers fulfilling a common dream created a special camaraderie among us, and I was happy to witness such genuine awe and respect for an intricate ecosystem that beats without humanity’s presence. We saw the “Big Five” (moose, grizzlies, caribou, Dall sheep, and wolves) in just the first three hours, in addition to a lynx, ptarmigan, snowshoe hares, golden eagles, harriers, trumpeter swans, pintail ducks, and ground squirrels. But by far the most spectacular surprise was Mt. McKinley (Denali)’s purple and pink peaks gracing a baby blue sky. I was thrilled just to see, hear, touch, and smell this magnificent park, but glimpsing so many rare sights made the day utterly remarkable. I also remembered my great grandmother Marian Erickson on what would have been her 99th birthday, and celebrated my cousin Adam Taplin’s wedding from more than 3,300 miles away.

A curious mode of transportation... the shuttle bus

Morning showers

A retreating glacier formed the kettle pond on the bottom left.

Gorgeous shadows and light

More incredible scenery

Mindi, what kind of rock formations are these?!

A glacier!

Bellissima

I made it to Wonder Lake!

Can you spot the female grizzly and her two cubs? This is one of three mom-and-cub groups we observed.

Mama bear (my favorite Denali photo!)

Caribou wading in a braided river valley

A "Dall speck" for you, Cameron! This male had amazing horns.

Sow moose under Denali

Sow moose

Two sow moose on the loose

Denali wolf

My first glimpse of Denali! I was so lucky to see this mountain usually obscured by clouds.

Getting closer to Denali...

My favorite view of Denali from Stony Pass

Denali from the Eielson Visitor Center

Clouds rolling in...

I wore this baseball cap received during an Alternative Spring Break trip to Appalachia in front of North America's highest peak (20,320 feet).

A Taste of Russia

I adore historic structures, especially churches and cathedrals. My Unitarian Universalist church just celebrated its 375th birthday, and while living in Europe I peeked inside hundreds of Spanish, Sicilian, and Italian churches in pursuit of incredible in situ artwork. On my long drive back from Homer past Ring of Fire volcanoes such as Mount Redoubt, I couldn’t help but visit three areas of Russian heritage along the Kenai Peninsula.

Nikolaevsk
I drove nine miles along a winding mountain road to reach this settlement of Old Believers founded in 1968. Abundant purple lupine and fireweed made the region look like Tuscany, except with evergreens instead of slender cypress! I passed a somewhat bizarre afternoon in Samovar Café devouring borsch, piroshok, and fireweed tea with its very hospitable owner Nina Fefelov, who emigrated from Russia many years ago.

Suddenly my visit turned into a photo shoot!

Ninilchik
This clifftop Russian Orthodox Church, constructed in 1901, was very peaceful.

Ninilchik Russian Orthodox Church

Kenai
Here I visited the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox church, built in 1895, and St. Nicholas Chapel, constructed in 1906. The docent grew up in Connecticut and got married near Fenway Park! How neat to meet a fellow member of Red Sox Nation. He was excited to tell me that another Russian Orthodox church exists near Bodega Bay in northern California. Carlee, we’ll have to drive up there in the fall to re-enact our Italian escapades.

Kenai Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church

Kenai St. Nicholas Chapel

Bald Eagles, Ptarmigans, Loons, Moose, and Tidepools: Homer

In Italy, I savored solo Trenitalia rides that allowed me to practice the beautiful language with random seat companions. I talked with citizens from all over the country— teenage girls to aged men. During my fifth week in Alaska, a two-day tidepooling excursion to Homer reminded me how much I enjoy traveling da sola.

Twice a month Homer receives extreme minus tides, and the vibrant marine productivity of Kachemak Bay promises excellent tidepooling. I spotted my first wild Alaskan moose along the marshy boardwalk to Bishop’s Beach, and as I gently turned over crusty rocks bald eagles soared above me. Their wingspans are longer than a human being! Underneath the rocks I found red sea cucumbers, blood stars, sun stars, funky looking crabs, chitons, sea urchins, eels, shrimp, and many more unique creatures.

This trip was especially meaningful to me because my family has spent so much time by the ocean. My father used to take me tidepooling at the lighthouse every Sunday, where we would wade through slippery seaweed examining periwinkles, starfish, sea urchins, crabs, anemones, sea worms, eels, and if we were lucky, a horseshoe crab. In the summer, my mother, sister, and I snorkeled over flounders and lobsters at the local beach.

On my first morning in Homer, I happily explored near a little girl whose curiosity reminded me of myself fifteen years ago. The second morning, I met an inquisitive middle-aged couple who somehow sensed that I know quite a bit about the intertidal zone. They asked me so many questions about what we were seeing! My knowledge gleaned from growing up on the New England coast and SCUBA diving along the Great Barrier Reef is such a wonderful gift to pass on to others.

In Homer I was also thrilled to feel my grandmother’s presence. She passed away when I was very young, so long weekends at her childhood cottage on Loon Island in Little Sebago Lake in Maine were sacred experiences for me as a little girl. We fell asleep on horsehair mattresses listening to the call of loons— my grandmother’s favorite animals. After my father launched Restless two summers ago, a pair of graceful swans circled their wings around and around the boat as we were dancing up at our boat club. These cousins of loons seemed to be my grandparents blessing Restless. In Homer while wandering the docks of the marina I chuckled at such classic Alaskan boat names as Pursuit, Born Free, Intrepid, Lip Ripper, and even a Restless! And as I was thinking about how well Restless’ steel hull would slice through the Bering Sea, I spotted a lone Arctic loon bobbing silently nearby in the still ocean. I have not seen a loon in years, and receiving this sign from Grammy made me very happy.

Homer is supposedly one of the best small art towns in America, but I must confess that after visiting its many galleries I think this distinction is somewhat overrated. Anita, I wish you had been with me to evaluate! The Pratt Museum had an amazing live camera focused on brown bears fishing at McNeil River Falls on Kodiak Island, and I was heartened to see so many enthralled visitors. But by far the best public educational center I visited in Alaska was the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, headquarters of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Its exhibits that emphasized saving wildlife for wildlife’s sake deeply impressed me… and even though I harbor mixed feelings about Teddy Roosevelt’s extravagant hunting escapades, he certainly had phenomenal insight to conserve so much of our country’s wild lands.

Bishop's Beach

Bishop's Beach intertidal zone

Can you spot the bald eagle in the distance?

Intertidal wading

Gorgeous seaweed patterns

Sea star

Sea star

Christmas tree anemone

I *think* this is a nematode...

Sea star

Sun star

Crazy crab!

Blood star

Sea cucumber

Sea stars

A Happy Birthday in Alaska

Sunrays finally softened the rain clouds on my twenty-third birthday, August 17th. I spent the morning on a lake boat cruise to nearby Portage Glacier, which was a pleasant little trip. Afterwards I stopped by the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center— hard to believe it was one of the first places I scouted in the neighborhood almost two months ago. That afternoon I worked for nearly three hours at the printer in Anchorage making the final edits to my brochures. How exciting to sign off on all ten proofs! I think they look great and I hope you will too.

The drive back down Turnagain Arm was just beautiful, so I decided to hike Mount Alyeska in my backyard. Two big bull moose impeded the upper trail! That night, I put on a dress for the first time in two months and even blow-dried my hair. Energized for a celebratory meal, I pulled into the parking lot of the Double Musky… and it was closed.

Va bene. The escapade certainly cinched my first birthday that didn’t really feel like a birthday, probably because I am getting old! Thank you so much to all who sent well wishes. I do wonder where my life is going to go, but much of my happiness derives from the surprises and unknowns. For now, I can’t wait for the lobster dinner greeting me at home!

My most ridiculous Alaskan portrait

Girdwood from above

Thank You for Your Patience!

I’m grateful to have such faithful readers, and apologize for my disappointing blogging lately. For the past two weeks I’ve been working 12-14 hour days in order to get these brochures in tip-top shape for the printer. InDesign is eating me alive and I am ready to send Adobe a few snippets of constructive criticism. Stay tuned for photographs from Homer, Denali, and Kenai Fjords… and of course, the final versions of my brochures! In the mean time, here are some cute snapshots from adorable animal photo shoots. Much love to all— I am missing you!

Me with Jewelie the Sikta black-tailed deer. She is graceful and sweet.

Me with Snickers the porcupine. He's pretty sassy!

Happy “Birthday,” Alaska!

Fifty years ago, Alaska became America’s 49th state. But Alaska Natives have lived here for thousands of years.

I spent the rainy days of my fourth week learning more about Alaska’s rich history. I visited the Anchorage Museum, Native Heritage Center, and Aviation Museum. The Anchorage Museum displayed extensive information about ancient archaeology and Alaska Natives’ subsistence lifestyle, Captain Cook and the Russian conquest, Seward’s Folly, Christian missionaries, the aviation era, railroads, the Klondike gold rush, World War II, 1959 statehood, the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the trans-Alaska pipeline, permanent fund dividends, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and Sarah Palin. An entire floor of art galleries featured the work of Sydney Laurence and illustrations from Captain Cook’s Arctic voyages. His South Pacific journals in Stanford’s Rare Book Collection are remarkable, and here I saw his men pointing rifles at Alaskan walruses, which they called sea horses. One sailor thought it would be anti-Christian to eat them. At the traveling Gold exhibition I read about both Australia and Alaska’s gold rushes and marveled with some disgust at extravagant Gilded Age artifacts like a baby rattle with an ivory handle and circular gold baubles.

The Native Heritage Center also impressed me. Aboriginal Australian Dreamtime Centers were some of my most memorable visits on that continent, so I was excited about the positive press this Alaskan version has received. Eleven different Alaska Native cultures exist, and the 1971 Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act formed thirteen Native corporations. However, the center organized itself around five broader cultural groups. I watched an interesting film about hunting walrus for their meat and tusks, and a fascinating exhibit on Alaska Native values reminded me of the principles of Unitarian Universalism and Shotokan karate. Here are my favorites:

See Connections: All Things are Related
Know Who You Are: You Are a Reflection on Your Family
Honor Your Elders: They Show You the Way in Life
Take Care of Others: You Cannot Live Without Them
Accept What Life Brings: You Cannot Control Many Things

Before I leave, I also hope to explore the Russian Orthodox churches on Kenai Peninsula as well as Girdwood’s Crow Creek Mine and Talkeetna’s nationally recognized historic buildings.

Phase II/III

Writing for an audience is a welcome change from the analytical essays of academia. Over the past month I definitely feel like I’ve strengthened my practice of environmental journalism. I’ve become much more comfortable conducting interviews, synthesizing vast amounts of information, and describing animals in an engaging manner.

Early last week I finished ten drafts about the Adopt-an-Animal program animals and transitioned to Phase II of my project— taking their photographs. Photography was my primary creative outlet at Milton, but in my eagerness to explore practically every academic subject possible at Stanford I often forget how magical just a few hours behind the lens can be for me.

However, I’m disappointed that after four weeks of 80° weather, we’re suddenly receiving extreme downpours! But I’ve been capturing preliminary pictures in the less-than-stellar light so I can better take advantage of good conditions when they arise. That way when the weather turns around, I should have a strong sense of the subjects and compositions I’m looking for.

The unfortunate rain forecast has also given me a head start on Phase III— creating the brochures. Right now I’m determining their design by making mock-ups with the few photographs I have. I’m working on selecting the color scheme and number of panels, making arrangements with the printer, and re-learning the ins and outs of InDesign… like picas, color swatches, and jumping text!

I thought I’d be outside this week developing a farmer’s tan rather than shivering in spandex leggings, ear warmers, rain pants, rubber boots, and double layers of Patagonia fleeces, but hopefully the stormy weather will soon pass.

Rocky Mountain elk fawn

Rocky Mountain elk fawn

Rocky Mountain elk bull... don't his antlers look like an upside down spider atop his head?

A younger Rocky Mountain elk bull itching his pesky antlers

I think this musk ox resembles Marie Antoinette!

I love this musk ox's little white curl!

New Vocabulary

As a Miltonian and Comparative Literature major, language is a constant source of fascination for me. Here are a few unfamiliar Alaskan words and phrases:

Bear Can: Bear-resistant food storage canister
Bear Spray: Pepper spray to defend against bear attacks
Blanket Toss: Inupiaq tradition during the spring whaling festival
Bore Tide: A tidal wave that returns to a shallow, narrow inlet from a broad bay after an extreme low tide
Carrion: The rotting flesh of a dead animal
Cheechako: Alaska newcomer
Combat Fishing: Elbow-to-elbow angling
Dipnetting: Subsistence fishing with a net (only Alaska residents allowed)
Flightseeing: Viewing Alaska scenery from a small plane
Lower 48: The continental United States
Mew: A cage for keeping hawks in
Midden: A pile of refuse outside the mouth of an octopus den
Rut: A period of sexual excitement that recurs annually in male ruminants
Salmon: An Alaskan staple… the five kinds are the most prized king (chinook), silver (coho), red (sockeye), pink (humpy),
and chum (dog)
Sourdough: Alaska old-timer
Qiviut: The soft wool that grows beneath the long outer coat
of the musk ox