Desert to tundra, Greater Roadrunner to Spectacled Eider, blistering heat in lands ninety metres below sea level to snow on the heights of the remote Brooks Range in Alaska, this trip is an ambitious undertaking not least due to the fact I am not sure how or if I can actually complete the last leg of the journey.
Targets for the trip? A juicy bonanza of mammals ...perhaps 50 species, oodles of birds.
Basic Plan
Travelling from 27 June till 25 July 2013 and utilizing rental car, Amtrak train, boat, ferry and a good deal of hitch-hiking, the basic idea is to fly into San Diego in southern California, then loop by car to the south-east to visit the superb Salton Sea a few kilometres north of the Mexican border, before then moving north through the arid lands of the Mohave Desert and Death Valley. After exploration of Mono Lake and adjacent sagebush areas, I will then climb into the Sierra Nevada mountains, spend a couple of days in Yosemite and then drop down to the Pacific coast, focussing on the rich waters of Monteray Bay. Leaving the car in Sacramento, I will then travel north to Seattle on a 20-hour Amtrak train, picking up another car to spend the better part of a day exploring the North Cascades in Washington State.
Then begins the adventurous segment of the trip – four-and-a-half days on a ferry boat, travelling up the Pacific Coast, initially via the Inside Passage through British Columbia and south-east Alaska and then via Yukatat across the open Gulf of Alaska. I really have no idea what to expect on this boat journey, parts will surely be tedious, but elsewhere rewards could include multiple species of auk, shearwater and albatross, plus hopefully whales and other marine species of mammal, in particular Orca.
Docking at Whittier, my plans are then a little flexible, another boat journey to visit seabird colonies one option, exploration of forests on the Kenai Peninsula another. Either way, a couple of days later, I will travel north to Denali National Park, land of mega-fauna and excellent birding, camping at a small campsite in the shadow of the mighty Mount McKinley. From Denali, a major question mark sits over the next step – a desire to reach the Arctic Ocean by land. The only land route is via the Dalton Highway, a remote gravel road running north from Fairbanks across the Arctic Circle, over the high mountains of the Brooks Range and onward to Deadhorse. A round-trip of over 1600 km, there are basically no settlements or services of note along its route, but plenty of Grizzly Bears and potential for good birding. At journey’s end, Deadhorse – a settlement established a few kilometres from the Arctic Ocean, permanent population zero, transient population somewhat variable, all there to service the oil installations in Prudhoe Bay. The journey to Deadhorse promises to be the biggest challenge of this trip – most car rental companies do not permit their vehicles to use this road, too remote and the road in too poor condition they say. The couple of companies that do allow their vehicles to use the road charge extortionate fees that, coupled with the equally extortionate cost of petrol on this route, would lead to a bill of perhaps $1500 for a short trip to this outpost. My solution, stick the thumb out and hope for the best. All reports suggest it is a hitch-hiking nightmare – not only the possibility of adverse weather and encounters with Grizzlies (and the guarantee of the biggest mosquito swarms on planet Earth!), but more critically very little traffic … and most of that being trucks servicing the oil stations that are forbidden to pick up passengers! Presuming all goes well, the rewards at the end potentially included both King and Spectacled Eiders, though I will be a little late in the season for these, plus a lot of juicy maybes, including Polar Bear, Sabine’s Gull and Snowy Owl.
From Deadhorse, depending on how long it takes to get there, my plans are a little hazy, possibly hitch-hiking directly back to Fairbanks; possibly flying to Barrow for a couple of days, an isolated community 150 miles further up the Arctic Coast and not reachable by road; or possibly, if the route up had been more difficult than expected, probably cursing that I had missed my flights back to Europe.
The finale to my journey will be a flight from Anchorage to Seattle, a very tight connection then taking me onward to New York and thereafter Europe. Not sure how I will get to Anchorage yet, nor if I make the connection. If I fail on either count, I’ll probably extend my trip by a week or so…
Targets for the trip? A juicy bonanza of mammals ...perhaps 50 species, oodles of birds.
Basic Plan
Travelling from 27 June till 25 July 2013 and utilizing rental car, Amtrak train, boat, ferry and a good deal of hitch-hiking, the basic idea is to fly into San Diego in southern California, then loop by car to the south-east to visit the superb Salton Sea a few kilometres north of the Mexican border, before then moving north through the arid lands of the Mohave Desert and Death Valley. After exploration of Mono Lake and adjacent sagebush areas, I will then climb into the Sierra Nevada mountains, spend a couple of days in Yosemite and then drop down to the Pacific coast, focussing on the rich waters of Monteray Bay. Leaving the car in Sacramento, I will then travel north to Seattle on a 20-hour Amtrak train, picking up another car to spend the better part of a day exploring the North Cascades in Washington State.
Then begins the adventurous segment of the trip – four-and-a-half days on a ferry boat, travelling up the Pacific Coast, initially via the Inside Passage through British Columbia and south-east Alaska and then via Yukatat across the open Gulf of Alaska. I really have no idea what to expect on this boat journey, parts will surely be tedious, but elsewhere rewards could include multiple species of auk, shearwater and albatross, plus hopefully whales and other marine species of mammal, in particular Orca.
Docking at Whittier, my plans are then a little flexible, another boat journey to visit seabird colonies one option, exploration of forests on the Kenai Peninsula another. Either way, a couple of days later, I will travel north to Denali National Park, land of mega-fauna and excellent birding, camping at a small campsite in the shadow of the mighty Mount McKinley. From Denali, a major question mark sits over the next step – a desire to reach the Arctic Ocean by land. The only land route is via the Dalton Highway, a remote gravel road running north from Fairbanks across the Arctic Circle, over the high mountains of the Brooks Range and onward to Deadhorse. A round-trip of over 1600 km, there are basically no settlements or services of note along its route, but plenty of Grizzly Bears and potential for good birding. At journey’s end, Deadhorse – a settlement established a few kilometres from the Arctic Ocean, permanent population zero, transient population somewhat variable, all there to service the oil installations in Prudhoe Bay. The journey to Deadhorse promises to be the biggest challenge of this trip – most car rental companies do not permit their vehicles to use this road, too remote and the road in too poor condition they say. The couple of companies that do allow their vehicles to use the road charge extortionate fees that, coupled with the equally extortionate cost of petrol on this route, would lead to a bill of perhaps $1500 for a short trip to this outpost. My solution, stick the thumb out and hope for the best. All reports suggest it is a hitch-hiking nightmare – not only the possibility of adverse weather and encounters with Grizzlies (and the guarantee of the biggest mosquito swarms on planet Earth!), but more critically very little traffic … and most of that being trucks servicing the oil stations that are forbidden to pick up passengers! Presuming all goes well, the rewards at the end potentially included both King and Spectacled Eiders, though I will be a little late in the season for these, plus a lot of juicy maybes, including Polar Bear, Sabine’s Gull and Snowy Owl.
From Deadhorse, depending on how long it takes to get there, my plans are a little hazy, possibly hitch-hiking directly back to Fairbanks; possibly flying to Barrow for a couple of days, an isolated community 150 miles further up the Arctic Coast and not reachable by road; or possibly, if the route up had been more difficult than expected, probably cursing that I had missed my flights back to Europe.
The finale to my journey will be a flight from Anchorage to Seattle, a very tight connection then taking me onward to New York and thereafter Europe. Not sure how I will get to Anchorage yet, nor if I make the connection. If I fail on either count, I’ll probably extend my trip by a week or so…
