64. A Perfect Birthday Gift: Heli-hiking!

I have never really cared about birthday that much. Yet, when I had a chance to go heli-hiking on my birthday, I felt especially lucky. It became one of the two most memorable birthdays I have ever had. The other one, just in case you are curious, happened about 10 years ago. At the time, I gave myself a special gift – I danced every single night of the “birth week” (for a couple of nights, I had to drive a couple of hours to find a dance). 🙂

“Take a walk on a wild side” says on the company ad. Well, we did take a walk on the wild side – the wild Alaskan back country. A helicopter lifted us up and dropped us off to a remote area located just beyond the boundaries of Denali National Park. With unforgettable views of the rolling hills and tundra ridge lines, we (another couple and I) hiked with a naturalist and his son above the tree-line for several hours.

Jeff, the experienced guide, has been working as a naturalist at this company for 17 years! Although he and his family live in Texas, he loved Denali area so much that he kept on coming back, year after year. It seems, pretty soon, his son of 9 years old will become someone just like his dad.

For someone who loves hiking and flying, no doubt, this is a birthday I will remember for rest of my life.

(It is just a rock. But look how pretty it is!)

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

63. Being the Lucky 20%

Statistically, only 20% of the people visiting Denali National Park are lucky enough to see Mt McKinley. Most of the time, 80% to be precise, the mountain is covered by clouds.

Personally, I think the chance might be even lower. At least I felt it this way. Even though I have been in the Denali area for a couple of months by now and we had a pretty good whether most of the time, I have only seen it a handful of times. Of course, I have been stuck in the office 5 days a week. And unfortunately, I have also spent several of the precious weekends lying in bed, feeling sick.

Needless to say, it felt so special and very lucky whenever I had a chance to witness the majestic mountain (20320 feet, the highest peak in North America) covered by permanent snow. The flowering pictures are taken from different directions of the mountain.

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

62. Flying, One more Time!

If you read Post #48, you knew I flew with “Denali Air” once a couple of months ago. After the flight, the owner told us that if space available, we were welcome to fly with him again. Well, I just got another chance, again, after trying to find a space several times. All I had to do is to be patient. For a “free flight”, I am certainly very patient and extremely grateful!

By now, I have already flown five times in the area with several different companies. Yet, I was as elated as the first time I was up there. Perhaps, I was a “fairy” in my previous life – for those who don’t know my email and online name, it contains “dancefairy” as I loved dancing, flying and writing romantic fiction. 🙂

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

61. Wildlife Viewing in Denali

Since Post #50, I have seen more wildlife, mainly from my trip to Kantishna. During one day (more than 90 miles one way from Denali National Park entrance to the end of the park road), we were very fortunate to see a Red Fox, a couple of Moose, several Caribou, 11 Grizzly Bears, some Dole Sheep, a number of Ptarmigan families and countless Ground Squirrel!

If you love animals, make sure to take one of those tours to go deep into the park when you visit Denali. Although I have seen wildlife around the entrance area of the park, I have seen so much more all 3 times I took the tour.

(A fat Hoary Marmot)

(Such a cute Ground Squirrel!)

(Yummy! Was this squirrel eating a cookie? )

(A happy family of Moose)

(A Caribou just came out from hiding from the bushes)

(A Red Fox who disappeared so fast)

(A Curious Doll Sheep)

(A beautiful Ptarmigan)

(This cute Grizzly Bear cub was rolling on his back. It seemed he was having so much fun.)

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

 

 

60. A Long Drive

On my last day off, I took a drive from Denali to Paxson which is only 150 miles away. How could it be a long drive?

Well, my original plan was to drive to Paxson, taking pictures along the way and then hiking at Summit Lake in Paxson. After I drove this mostly unpaved 150 miles, in about 5 hours, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go back the same way. The scenery is beautiful along Denali Highway. However, not only the road is unpaved and windy, it is really very remote with no more than half a dozen houses along a 130 mile stretch. I was worried constantly about a flat tire. Even with an AAA membership, I doubt anyone would come to “rescue” me if I did have a flat tire.

So I decided to take a long way back: from Paxson to Delta Junction, to Fairbank, then to Denali. It is a little over 300 miles, double the distance if I drove back directly from Paxson. However, it took me less than 6 hours which would be similar amount of time I needed to drive directly.

Oh, I didn’t do much of hiking – the mosquitoes were terrible. With only a few steps and several minutes outside, they bit me a number of times! I heard that this year the mosquito is the worst in over 70 years! Not sure this is true. However, it is no doubt that they are terrible this year! It definitely took the fun of hiking away from me. And it is another reason I decided to drive longer than shorter. Seeing more scenery safely inside of the car, away from those terrifying mosquitos. 🙂

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

59. Remarkable Fireweed

Alaska’s most well know and beloved wildflower is the fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium). It can be seen along the highway and sometimes, the roadside corridors are enflamed in pink with this abundant wildflower. It reaches its peak bloom by late July and early August, depending on different geological locations. Fireweed blooms first at the bottom. An old Alaskan saying claims that by the time the fireweed blossoms at the very top, the summer is over.

I love fireweed, not only because it is pretty, but more importantly because my mom loved it. This wildflower often appears as the first wildflower in burned-over lands after wild fire, thus the name fireweed. To my mom, it represents the strong spirit and tough will of wildflowers to survive and to blossom in most splendid way even under the most barren and desolate condition.

Once again, this blog is for my mom!

(“white” fireweed?)

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

58. Flying in a Helicopter!

I know I thought it wouldn’t get any better (Post #55). Well, it did – I got to land on a glacier again, this time flying in a helicopter! I had never flown in a helicopter before this, so to me, it is even better than flying in a regular small plane. Even the view is better from a helicopter as I was lucky to sit in the front row with the large window right in front of me! Needless to say, I had a marvelous time!

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

 

 

 

57. More Wildflowers

Tall Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium)

I have got a few people expressed their interests of wildflowers after I posted some on Post #53. Since then I have taken more pictures of wildflowers (a cloudy day is actually pretty good for taking pictures of flowers). Although I still don’t know the names of all, I have tried to find out their names as much as possible (also updated post #53 with some names as well). Please leave a comment if you know the name of those wildflowers (or correct me if I am wrong).

Tall Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium)

Dwarf Fireweed

Dwarf Fireweed

Alaska Spring Beauty

Pink Plumes

Elegant Paintbrush

Shooting Star

Shrubby Cinquyefoil (Potentilla fruticosa)

Alaskan Poppy

Mountain Harebell

Swedish Dwarf Cornel

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

56. Over the Rainbow

The weather has been cold, cloudy and rainy lately. Even though I have done a lot, including hiking and spending a weekend at a lodge deep inside of Denali National Park, I don’t have too many good pictures to share. However, being in a rainy day, the chance of catch a glimpse of rainbow is higher. In fact, I have seen several rainbows recently.

One of the most intense rainbows I saw happened to be on a day I forgot to take my camera with me when I went hiking, which was the only time I left my “weapon” behind. At first it was wasn’t so impressive, but time passed on, it became more and more intense. And I became more and more upset with myself. How could I forget such an important thing at such an incredible time? Luckily, I had my cell phone with me so at least I had some recording of the existence of such a rainbow, besides my memory.

(A plan just happened to fly by!)

(The rainbow “started” from a American flag!)

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html

55. Landed on a Glacier

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago. I took so many pictures that it was hard to pick and choose what to post so I delayed and delayed until today. It is my day off but it is raining so I have no excuse to put this off any more.

When I took the first sightseeing flight, I was sure there is nothing to beat that (Post #48). Then just a few days later, I took two other flights seeing, in a day, which was even better (Post #49). Again, I was certainly that nothing will be better than that!

Well, landed on glacier is better that just the flight! Not only I got to see everything I saw on the other flights, we landed on a glacier, 9 miles away from Mt McKinley! The experience was simply amazing. Standing on the glacier surrounded by mountains peaks is incredibly serene. I loved and will treasure this experience. Surely, as I thought before, nothing will beat this. But of course, I can be wrong as I was before. And if it happens to be I am wrong on this subject, I won’t be upset, for sure. 🙂

PS. my photo website: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/qing-yang.html