AirBnB Adventures in Denali

Today was a mostly a driving day, taking my time traversing the four or so hours north from Anchorage to Denali National Park. I was amazed by the drive. The last time I'd been on the road was in 1997 with my friend Ila, and back then the road was way more primative. Now it looks more like a freeway in California rather than a trip through the outback of Alaska.

One of the suprising things to me was the little Eklutna church and cemetary are no longer on the main highway. I will visit Eklutna on the way back.

I picked out a place to stay in Denali before I left California - a nice sounding Air BnB in the boondocks. I drove the road and stopped to admire a nice cow moose who was trimming the hedges.

Then I stopped at 'my cabin' and had a minor hissy fit when I couldn't unlock the front door of the cabin. Turned out I'd stopped one cabin too soon. The host sent someone to escort me to 'my' cabin. Oopsy. Oh well. My cabin is below.

Looking down to the AirBnB cabin from the parking area

View of the front door and looking
through to the extravagent rear porch

The back porch. The view is the photo at the bottom of this post

I looked around inside and was impressed - particulary considering how out in the boondocks it was. It was located slightly down a gentle hill, and was fully furnished and had a tiny kitchenette. When you turned on the water in the sink, there was a LOUD pumping noise as the water has to be pumped in - I guess.

In the photo below is the entirety of the cabin. The ladder goes up to a loft, and ou can kind of see the mattress up there on the floor. I didn't even climb up there for the halibut. My bed was the one you see on the bottom left. It was SO high up that I had to develop the 'Claire Method' of getting myself up there at night.  I kind of flung myself up so my butt lodged up there, then I'd roll onto the bed like a fat harbor seal getting onto an ice flow. There was a TV too - but it was on Roku and it was high up on the wall, level with the loft. So if you sat on the couch to watch TV, you'd have gotten a crick in your neck.

But hey, what is visiting Alaska but the adventure of spending a couple of days in a cabin in the middle of nowhere?

Then it dawned on me.

They said there was a bathroom... where's the bathroom?

I left the cabin and looked around. Oh dear... turns out the 'cabin with kitchen, bedroom and bath' was actually a 'cabin with kitchen, bedroom and outhouse(s)'.

Yes. Outhouses. Two of them. One downhill and one uphill where my car was parked. Nice outhouses, particularly the lower one, but still - outhouses.

And there was a shower too... in a tent a little ways from the cabin. The tent had a bucket in it. I guess you would fill the bucket with water in the cabin, carry it to the tent, then bathe in the tent. Yes, I know!

I will shower later in the week...

Wow, you really need to do your homework when decifering AirBnB descriptions! I was surprised but not stunned by the no indoor toilet thing. For one thing, it is summer so doesn't get dark at night. Using the outhouses in the winter would be another story entirely. But in the summer it is so light at night there isn't a need to even carry a flashlight, so an outhouse didn't even bother me, and as I'm an 'usually gotta pee twice a night' lady that's saying something.

And wildlife? Honestly, I'd be thrilled to run into any kind of wildlife in the Alaskan twilight say except perhaps a Bigfoot or whatever. When I write up my review I will mention that there is no indoor bathroom, to save some old bat like me from having to put on mukluks and snow shoes on at 3AM when they have to go for a pee.

Enough whinging. I was in Denali so I put my stuff away in 'my' cabin and headed to the park.

I wanted to take one of the  many Denali buses that carry visitors into the park, because it is largely closed to private cars. It is not closed to hiking but even if I were an avid hiker, I wouldn't be dumb enough to enter a park with grizzlies, wolves and what not, by myself. I found it was too late for catching any buses today so I just did a little sight seeing and I visited the main Denali Visitor Center.

Looking down from the second storey of the Visitor Center

I rather like this moose puzzle, which gives the native names for the different moosey bits.

A replica of one of the old Alaskan homesteader cabins
You know... pre-AirBnB

After my trapsing around the visitor center, I did a little shopping at a local store in the tiny town of Healy, then I headed back to my cabin for the night - if you can call that half twilight night at all that is. Tomorrow I explore the Denali interior via bus.

Dark and Beautiful sky from the cabin back porch

Nome, Sweet Nome

Muskpuppies

No, still making with the puns and pushing my 'aren't Muskoxen awesome' agenda. But take heart - the Nome portion of my trip is winding down.

Yesterday, in tundra shrubs, Richard located a pair of Arctic Warblers  - LIFER! I looked and looked but the birds only allotted us fleeting glances for quite a while. I was honestly wondering if I would not count the species at all, when finally, one of the two tiny warblers perched its adorable bum in a tree on thee the hillside.

Not the flashiest birdie out thereon the tundra...

 The photographers among us shot a zillion pix of the little guy. The bird then seemed to decide to give us an additional view so as to assure it be recorded properly for prosperity. The more drab birds have to use every angle available.

Arctic Warbler

A tad drab as warblers go, yes, but for me, as exciting as they get.

Throughout the day we stopped at bridges over rivers, and one such stop included excellent gawks at a busy little American Dipper. I've seen Dippers before but this particular bird was going out of its way to show us basic Dipper behavior. It busied itself pulling its food from under the stream waters - grubs that looked both juicy in appearance and barf invoking.


One stop along the way gave me my second view ever of Rock Ptarmigan. My last view of the species was ages ago on Attu island and that was of a flock winging its way as far away from birders as possible.

Richard declared this bird a male 

I think it had to do with the dusky sort of plumage it had

Just about to put some distance between itself and a truck full of happy birders

It was a particularly nice day for Red-necked Phalaropes, for which the lighting and the sparkling water on which they floated made for nice shots.

No idea why the water looks like it was oil painted & magical in this photo

And the mirror effects for this little girl was amazing

She's chattering to herself about how amazing she looks

After hearing Wilson's snipes calling all week it was nice to have sit still for a photo

This little Western Sandpiper could be ID because we could see the little cheverons dotting its chest.

Pacific Golden Plover

The Plover was half way through with its molt

Yellow Warbler

Long-tailed Jaeger

The Long-tailed Jaeger showing off its pointed tailfeathers

Several groups of muskoxen popped up throughout the day. Each and every group of the hairy beasts thrilled me down to my toes. They are so large and prehistoric looking I would have been unsurprised to se a sabertooth sneaking up on them. 

OK. I guess I finally got in enough photos of muskoxen to satisfy me. Tomorrow is Sunday and we are leaving in the late afternoon. I wish I could maneuver another week up here. Maybe next year.

In the Heart of Nome

Nome is Where the Heart is

Nap Time on the Tundra for moms & their calves

No - not done with the puns yet. And Nome may be where the heart is, but it is also where the interesting lifers are, particularly those with long distance flight stats. We started the day where the road crossed by a fogged in estuary of sorts where gulls and terns accumulated. We looked for Aleutian Terns that migrate as far as 44K miles, from north to south pole. 

A different tern... Arctic terns and one flashy, black hooded Sabine's Gull.

A Parasitic Jaeger did a fly-by

Took a while but we finally spotted a small group of - LIFER FER ME - Aleutian Terns sitting on a gravel bar. They are the three birds in the foreground with the white area just above their bills.

Fun fact:  Aleutian terns do not defend their nests, they just fly away when trouble hits. It's theorized Aleutians nest among Arctics because Arctics vigorously defend their nests, and Aleutians may benefit by nesting alongside their feistier cousins.

So what? We can always try our nesting luck again next year.

After a bit we headed out, traveling east, our eyes open for spotting critters, winged & unwinged.  On the unwinged sort, we found a cow moose with a calf. Everyone saw the calf but me. It's there but its below the tops of the scrub.

Moose in the Mist

I wasn't too bothered by the fog really - that is, until a rare opportunity popped up on the Bering Sea. A flock of full-on breeding plumaged Red Phalarope!  I mean, Jiminy Christmas!  I sometimes see these fascinating teeny-wienie birds way the hell out on the Pacific Ocean.  So on this extremely rare occasion, we saw them in a fairly large group with the weather too foggy for clear pix. RATS! Oh well. The females are colorful, with rust feathering and yellow bills. Hey, just enjoy.

Red Phalaropes: Just imagining this had been taken on a sunny morning makes my head ache!

Oh, and this Lapland Longspur, a species I last saw in the year 2000.

Male Lapland Longspur surveying his kingdom

Common Eider out for a swim - here's to seeing Spectacled, King and Stellar's Eiders this week too, 

Then, HERE COMES THE SUN!

Two Laplanders!

Pacific Loons, one on nest, the other on patrol

Common Redpoll, looking all blushed and stuff

But enough peripheral birdies and such. We were after lifers (for 'moi') after all. We headed up into the foothills.  Our target birdie - the Northern Wheatear - another long distance flyer that gives the Aleutian Tern a run for the birdseed. Richard took us to an area where the Northern Wheatears are known to hang. We looked and looked, and finding some obvious birders along the roadway, we asked if they had spotted the Wheatears. There were satisfied nods, Minutes later I was happily shooting a zillion photos of this fellow.

Make Northern Wheatear looking kind of like a Mockingbird, but sooo much cooler!

Richard looking all happy that we got our bird!

Honestly, never in a zillion years thought I'd ever get to see a Northern Wheatear.

You mean Lil' ole me? Aw shucks M'am...

With the big Bird of the day, there was nothing left but for us to sit on our laurels and enjoy all the other creatures.

Lapland Hopping Lessons

I dun good, 

Lovely Tundra Swan

Late in the afternoon we walked along a wooden boardwalk, and what popped out from under it? This sleepy, scratchy & weary looking Red Fox. Not my best sighting or the best fox poses, but better than the old poke in the eye.