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Denali National Park, August
2003 |
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First, to set the
stage...what is a "road permit"?? If you haven't, here's how it works - the park is not like any park in the Lower 48 (or "Outside", as Alaskans refer to it): |
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So what's a photographer (or artist, in my case) to do about getting high-quality reference material? My gigantic 500mm tripod-mounted howitzer lens simply won't do for elbowing to a window on the bus to take snaps of the caribou. Fortunately, the park has been kind enough to institute a private-vehicle permit for those who can qualify as professional photographers/artists. Once your materials qualify you, you then submit a set of dates when you'd like to visit the park. The park has a lottery drawing that determines which dates each permittee receives. Naturally, everyone wants the same 3-week period from mid-August to early September, as the animals are in prime coat and the tundra is turning flaming autumn colors, so those dates are hard to get. We were drawn for early August dates this time around, so the animals were in good coat but we didn't get the autumn tundra I love so. Enough preamble - on to some of the highlights in slides and paintings. |
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The good news:
This meant The Mountain (Denali, aka Mt. McKinley) was out and visible 3 whole days on our trip!! Inconceivable. Normally, in a week's time there might be one day when the mountain is out. As a sign at the Visitor Center says: "Your chance of seeing a grizzly bear on the bus tour is 95%; your chance of the seeing the mountain is 5%". |
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Not this visit.
In this photo, doesn't it look like the mountain is just a brisk hike - a few miles - away? Appearances in Alaska are extremely deceptive, due to a lack of objects on the tundra with which to judge size. From where my husband is standing, Denali is still 30 miles away, and towers another 21,000 feet above us! The bad news: for some reason, or combination of reasons - perhaps including the unnatural weather - the wildlife was scarce. In our 5 days driving the park road, we saw only a few bears, and most of those quite a distance away...mowing on berry bushes with fierce intensity. We had just a handful of good photo sessions with various animals, and should have had many more. |
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I felt especially bad for the caribou. They are extremely well adapted for the unimaginable cold of deep winter in Alaska, so 75 degrees left them desperately seeking shade. This poor fellow was facing into a scrap of shade and panting so hard he looked like he might explode. He simply stood without moving, despite the buses that continued to stop to look at him. If it's still warm, he's probably still there. |
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Our first night in the park
we spent at Savage River campground, before heading deep into the park for
the remainder of the trip. This was the only time we had amenities like
picnic tables.
The gray jays here were obviously quite bold, and this one apparently thought we were too messy with our hors d'ouevres. While I took this picture the insolent bird had the nerve to walk within inches of my lens and steal an entire cracker!! Although we had scarce luck with the megafauna, we did do well with the smaller animals - who were no less photogenic... |
 Gray jay making his move on our cheese'n'cracker plate |
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 Hoary marmots - what's up with the kiss? |
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Out by Wonder Lake, which is one of my favorite areas in the park to hang out, there are a gazillion "kettle ponds" - small or large, often ovular, remnants of the last Ice Age left by melting ice blocks. Where one finds kettle ponds, one often finds beaver... ...like this skeptic who swam over to scope out my tripod and long lens before making a nonchalant retreat. |
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And where one finds beaver ponds,
one can often find moose - mostly in the early morning, snorkeling to
feed on aquatic vegetation.
We saw them stay submerged for quite long periods (a minute? maybe more?), looking a lot like an overturned brown rowboat. This girl was hanging out in such gorgeous light, she was the first thing I painted when I came home... |
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 "Bathing Beauty" oil on canvas mounted on panel, 17 x 34 |
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And for the piece de resistance -
the highlight of the trip... Every time we go to Denali, it seems we always end up spotting some Dall sheep in a position that's at least somewhat accessible by non-Olympic athletes (most of the time they're on spires that would take a day or more for us awkward 2-footed types to climb). And then we have to go endure a grueling hike in the hopes of getting at least some worthwhile pictures. If you don't hike to the sheep, you'll never see more than white dots from the park road. Hence, a sacrifice is generally required to obtain photographs that I can use as reference material. |
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| Our record held.
We saw two very nice rams hanging out on an extremely steep finger ridge coming down from Thorofare Pass. They were clearly not terribly skittish, as a trail crew was working about a quarter mile away on the next ridge over. So, we strapped on waistpacks with film and lenses (in my case) and shouldered giant digital video camera and tripod (in my husband Paul's case), and began climbing. After more than an hour of hiking, sliding, slidestepping across scree slopes that were at 100% grade (45 degrees), sweating, panting, and wondering if the sheep were still up there...we came out below a rock knob and saw this beautiful boy lying down chewing cud and regarding his domain with regal calm. He didn't even give us a glance, but remained ruminating for a half hour or so. Then he and his buddy got up and wandered all around us on the rocky slope grazing on nearly invisible tufts of plants. It was magical - Edenic. |
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| Our experiences with wild sheep (bighorn in the Rockies, thinhorn [Dall]
sheep in Alaska) have always been this way. Wherever wild sheep are not
hunted, they can become calm and trusting of human presence.
To have the trust of a wild animal, and to be able to observe that animal in his natural daily behavior, is indescribable. We have even experienced the wordless delight of a young ram lying down next to us, treating us as just other (if somewhat odd) sheep. I know there will be many paintings from this experience - this one is just the first from those few hours we spent in Denali. I titled the painting because of the obviously broken horn this boy was wearing...wish I could have seen the fracas that claimed it. Well, I could go on...but this is probably enough. Thank you, Denali.
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