Loony in Denali

Loons on the lake.  We found out that loons unlike all other birds have solid bones.   That makes them heavy and poor flyers.   They require about 1/4 mile of flat water to get up enough speed to fly.   Even then they typically don’t fly far.  But their heavy bones make them superb divers.   They routinely dive to 200’ to find fish and whatever else they want to eat.   Lastly, they make the most beautiful haunting moaning whistle sound.   It’s quite eerie, particularly when you find out that noise came from a bird.

This is most likely a mated pair of loons.

This is a lousy photo, but that gives you an idea of what we see.   This is looking out towards Denali from the Talkeetna Lodge.   We can’t see anything above a few hundred feet, and probably even less than that.

We got to sleep-in this morning.   Unfortunately, everyone else was to go on their Denali overflight this morning, but alas, it was cancelled due to weather.  Karen & I did the glacier flight last night, hence we got to sleep-in.   A lame hotel buffet breakfast with desiccated scrambled eggs, but unfortunately yummy fruit pastries….  Darn the pastries!

We stopped for lunch at Mary Carey’s, which turned out to be quite a nice roadhouse restaurant.   It also happens to be the only restaurant in about a 50 mile radius.   Regardless, we have been overfed so much that Karen and I hardly ate anything.

We stopped and Byers Lake in Denali State Park and went kayaking around the lake.

These cheesy sit-on kayaks actually aren’t bad.  They were surprisingly stable and easy to paddle.

This bridge is at the outflow end of the lake.   Beyond that lies rapids, and we aren’t allowed to go there.

A couple of sign boards detailing the history of Byers Lake and the local birds we should expect.

Other than the loons, we saw few other birds.

The trees are really short, narrow, and set far apart.   Gives the landscape a really odd look.

The Alaska State Bird….  Careful out there.

Pizza dinner at The Prospector’s.  Pretty good pie and pretty good beer.   Even better company though.

There is no sunset tonight.   Sunset is at 0001 (12:01am).   Twilight lasts until 1:35am. It does not get dark.  Twighlight starts back up around 2:30am with sunrise at 4:00am.   I was not up to see any of that, so, it’s all rumor to me.

My sister sent me a photo of our dad today.   So, for no reason other than I miss him, I figure I’d post it here.  I love you, Dad.