Tag Archives: backpacking

Mt Churchill and Mt. Bona, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

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Tallest peaks in the University Range, Mt. Churchill and Mt. Bona rise dramatically from Russell Glacier, catching the last rays of the day, Fall colors in the foreground, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Tallest peaks in the University Range, Mt. Churchill and Mt. Bona rise dramatically from Russell Glacier, catching the last rays of the day, Fall colors in the foreground, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s an image that I am amazingly lucky to have made. Probably luckier than I deserve to be. Not because of the luck involved in catching this scene like this; this image has been a long, long time in coming. The scene is taken from the south end of Chitistone Pass, near Skolai Pass, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. I’ve spent more time here than I probably should admit to, waiting, hoping and wondering if I’d ever actually happen to catch it in the light that I knew graces these peaks from time to time.

Finally, this September, I was up at Skolai Pass with our phototour and we were really blessed with some great weather. I was giddy with excitement and I’m sure the folks along on the trip were wondering just what they’d got themselves into.

Within 20 minutes of landing we’d already found and photographed a Least Weasel, which I’d never had the opportunity to photograph inside the park previously. Next up we ran into some Woodland caribou, apparently the only woodland caribou herd in Alaska, so that was pretty awesome.

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Moose Rack, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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A hiker, Natalie, sits with a moose rack and skull, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I ran across what is easily the biggest moose rack I’ve ever come across in the woods a few days ago. I was on the last leg of a hike in Alaska’s gorgeous Wrangell Mountains in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, from the Sanford River drainage over the Sanford Plateau, and down to the Dadina River.

Natalie (pictured) and I were sauntering through the forest, along the Dadina River when I spotted this rack, not far from the game trail we were walking along. This was one BIG bull moose – I don’t know what happened to the grand old fella, but he’s bones now. He must’ve been a pretty awesome creature back in the day. There are a number of wolves in the area, and grizzly bears as well, and I’m sure he fed them well, along with the myriad other carnivores in the region – wolverine, fox, marten, gulls, ravens, eagles, etc.

What a treat it must’ve been for them when he passed, and what a treat it would’ve been to see him walking through the forest beforehand. RIP, great bull.

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Backpacking Tebay lakes, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Backpacking near tebay lakes, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

hey Folks,

Here’s what happens when the guide lets someone else lead. Sergei, aka, Borat, was confident of his ability to lead us to our next campsite. he’d been in this area with me last year, and figured he knew the way. So I said ‘sure, you go on ahead’, we’ll follow you. We were aiming to stay on the southern side of this ridge, staying well below the crest, traversing around to our campsite. Sergei pushed higher and higher t every opportunity, and before ya know it, we came over the top, looking toward Tebay Lakes to the north of us. Jodee’s standing here, looking around asking herself “What The Heck?” and the rest of the group had collapsed on the ground.

🙂

Well, that’s not QUITE the truth, but Sergei did lead us up this ridge – and it was a pretty sweet spot to hang out for a while.

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Hiking Harry’s Gulch, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Sveta hiking Harry’s Gulch, on the Bremner - Tebay Lakes backpacking trip, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s another image from the Harry’s Gulch section of the Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes trip we did in August. This is Svetlana, or Sveta, as she hiked past me on the ridgeline. We decided a little further on that we were a tad high, and the sidehilling was a little slow, so we descended to easier walking down along the valley floor. A good decision, but I’m sure glad we spent time up high too – great views back east through the Chugach Mountains.

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Waterfall, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Waterfall on the East Fork Tributary of the Little Bremner River, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s an image from the recent Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes trip we did. This one is of a small waterfall we passed by as we paralleled the East Fork of the Little Bremner River, heading west down out of the pass at Harry’s Gulch. This was definitely one of the coolest sections of the hike.

The night before we camped on a grassy bench just below the pass, had a visit at dinner time from a grizzly bear, and then enjoyed a really delightful walk down the valley. The stream grew larger and larger as other tributaries ran into it – up at the head of the pass it was a fraction of the size it was here.

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Dall sheep ewe, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

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A dall sheep ewe stands on a ridge above the Chittistone Valley, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

OK, I’ll stop with the photos from Chile, taken a year ago. Here’s another image from this past summer, of a Dall sheep ewe we saw on the Skolai to Wolverine trip. We saw numerous Dall sheep along the way, but this one I was able to get close to and make some decent photos.

It took me quite a while, as it usually does shooting Dall sheep in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, because they’re pretty skittish.

Hunting is allowed in the preserve, and is allowed in the park by subsistence permit only – meaning locals are allowed to hunt pretty much wherever they choose, provided they don’t use motorized transport to get there – so they can’t fly in via bushplane to a place like this and hunt, but they can come in and hunt here if they travel on foot – not very likely.

However, even though hunters don’t get in to a place like this very much, the sheep are still very wary – I guess word gets around. Also, so few wildlife photographers spend any time in the park, the animals don’t learn to trust people, so the remain pretty skittish.

One more post for 2007!

Cheers

Carl

Hopscotch above the Chittistone River

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Hiking and trekking above the Chittistone River, Chittistone, Valley, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.,

Hey Folks,

This will be my last post here for a while. I’m heading off to the big wilderness again in the morning. This time, my plan is a little different. I’ll be over in the park until just before Xmas, when I have to return to Anchorage and baby sit 2 dogs, Keba and Musa, until the new year – then I’ll be back over to the park scrounging around in the dark.

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Wildflowers, Chugach Mountains, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Wildflowers, Chugach Mountains, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s another photo from my trip this year to Tebay Lakes. We hiked south from the landing strip, at Upper Tebay Lake, and found this ridge on the backside of Tebay Falls, where we camped. I got up early one morning and had a blast shooting the dawn, with an array of wildflowers.

Most mornings there would be an ever so slight breeze, which made it difficult to get closeup photos of the wildflowers, but I managed to get a few that were sharp. Fortunately there were flowers everywhere here – way more than probably anywhere else in the park that I’ve seen.

This little patch of Dwarf Fireweed (the magenta or pink-ish flower here) and Arctic Daisy made a nice foreground for the distant peaks. I’ve never been very good at identifying flowers, but I’m pretty sure these are right. The yellow ones are either Alpine Arnica or Mountain Arnica.

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How to find a campsite, by Carl.

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backpacking campsite, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

There’s a lot of things I’m not good at. I can’t do math (I quit, right around the time our class began studying something they referred to as ‘long division’). I can’t play basketball. I have a black thumb when it comes to all things computer. I’m not good at remembering where I put things ….. BUT!!!! …….

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Bremner River, Wrangell St. Elias National Park

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Sunset over the Bremner River, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks

OK – we’ve officially left Denali behind. For a while. I’m going to post some images from Wrangell St. Elias National Park, because it’s been a while .. must be a few weeks at least.

This photo was taken on a backpacking trip I did this August, near Tebay Lakes.

We flew in to the backcountry, after waiting around McCarthy all day for the weather to clear – we’d flown in earlier in the day, only to be turned back by a dense fog, less than a mile from our landing strip — arrgghhh – so close! Then we hiked for 10 days, and had an absolute blast. The weather couldn’t have been better – you know it’s good weather in Alaska when I’m swimming in lakes and showering in waterfalls. The blueberries were out of this world.

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