Katmai National Park

S and I spent a week in Alaska to celebrate our wedding anniversary this year! We took the trip at the best time of the year and it was so amazing I can't wait to already go back. We flew in from Chicago to Anchorage, connecting in Seattle. We finished dinner at the Seattle airport at a little vegetarian joint called Floret. We took an uber from the airport to the airbnb we stayed at. 

Day 1 in Alaska, we took a flight to Katmai National Park. Katmai can only be accessed by plane or boat and we took a plane ride with an outfitter for a full day trip to Brooks Camp at Katmai. We had a very early start to the day - we were at the airport at 6.30! Thankfully our airbnb host had packed us a brown-bag breakfast to go. Best part was being the co-pilot on this flight :)

The first leg of the trip was to Kulik lodge & it was just an amazing journey over the mountains and water bodies. For days after the trip, I kept dreaming of flying through these mountains!

At Kulik, we switched to a sea plane for the much shorter ride to Brooks Camp.

We had to sit through a short intro video and lecture at the visitors center by a park ranger and off we went to see the one thing that was on everyone's mind - Grizzlies!

And this bear was right under the bridge at the end of a 1 mile trail! Breeding season yielded him a lot of the scars & injuries you can see here.

We could already see a couple of bears at Brooks Falls as we approached. Here is a link to a webcam to watch these bears.

It was interesting to see the dynamics of the various bears that made it the river when we were there. The guy in the foreground made sure he only allowed certain individuals to fish when he was on watch. A few of the younger ones that came by just took one look at who was in the river and took off. A few that dared to step in the water were chased off without mercy.

We saw a few of them trying to catch the salmon from upstream, though most of them were wading the pools by the falls to catch fish.

From the viewing platform, this bear was at most 10-15 feet away from us. Glad we were up on a platform :) We took a quick lunch break back at camp - a buffet with vegetarian options. We almost ran into a bear on our way to the lodge - a quick warning from a park ranger who heard us talking loudly on the trail helped avoid a head-on! (we did pay attention to the intro video at the visitors center)

 This is the only bear we saw catch & eat a fish when we were watching! We also saw a lot of salmon and trout, magpies, a merganser swimming with 12 chicks (one of them on its back). We were so focused on watching out for bears, we mostly ignored everything else.

We left Brooks Camp a little after 3.30, both exhilarated and exhausted. All of us on the plane other than the pilot slept most of the way back. Ended the day with a quick dinner of dal and rice at Namaste Indian restaurant in Anchorage.

Glow of a Volcano

The last two days we have in Hawaii, we are spending at the Volcano National Park. The Halemaʻumaʻu Crater in the Kilauea Caldera has an active vent that is spewing out gas and steam. Here are a sequence of pictures taken from the outlook at Jaggar Museum. As the evening turns to night, the vista becomes very surreal and there are no words to describe the feeling of being near (almost standing) on an active volcano!

The Great Salt Lake

I spent last week in Utah, mostly at Snowbird attending the 17th Annual Conference of the Wildlife Society. After the conference at which I had a great time reconnecting with friends, getting inspired by some of the talks, great conversations with my advisor and arguing about diversity! On Friday I traveled in Salt Lake City and my last stop before my flight back home was the Great Salt Lake State Park. I went to Saltair drive near the airport. The water level was pretty low and I had to walk a little to the water's edge. The day was gorgeous and it was wonderful being outside. I did taste the water and felt it was saltier than sea water :) Here are a couple of my shots!

Lone Elk Park @ St. Louis

Our last weekend in St. Louis we went to the World Bird Sanctuary and drove through the Lone Elk County Park. We didnt get to go hiking here as dogs are not allowed. There were plenty of wildlife and it was an awesome place to to spend a wonderful evening.

The herd of bison had quite a few calves running around

The elk that chased Shankar back to the car

@ the Dog Park

Yesterday was a really nice warm day here in Wisconsin and we took the doggies to the dog park in Verona as soon as Shankar got home. They had already played quite a bit during the day, and were super tired by the time we got back from the park. In fact Kalki was exhausted to a point where he slept in the car when we stopped at a store - he is usually anxious in the car and can't wait for us to get back. They both had a great time at the park, with the only wish that other dogs that grab their ball come back to play with it and not run away.

Kalki @ Indian Lake

I think every pet parent has a moment when they realize how naughty their kids are. My moment with Kalki was when I took him hiking with a couple of friends to Indian Lake last fall, soon after we had brought him home. He managed to chew the retractable leash between the house and the park and I had to knot the two pieces together into a workable leash. When I was looking at a map, in a gap of a few seconds he managed to chew it again, without any cord left for a knot. I was able to barely attach the handle on his harness and he was happy to be running around by himself. I think grabbing the handle in his mouth made him feel proud, like he is doing my work for me! Doesn't he look like he has accomplished something?

I am thinking of...

... all the birds of the Galapagos and the disease ecology of their parasites and pathogens...

Galapagos Hawk

Governor Dodge State Park

We camped at the Governor Dodge State Park on Friday night and went on a hike yesterday morning. Amy had a great time on both the days. On Friday evening she was playing with a couple of other dogs. She was leading us on the hike (she likes to run ahead of everyone) on Saturday, with some reruns to check and make sure we were still around. She was so tired by the end of the trip, she did not budge from her bed to greet a friend yesterday! She also jumped through some hula hoops we found on the trail :)

Hiking @ Pope Farm Park

On Sunday evening, Shankar and I went on a Moon viewing / hiking to Pope Farm Park in the Town of Middleton outside Madison. This was a trip organize by the Madison Outdoor Meetup group. This park, of about 105 acres was converted from farmland to what it is today - woodlands and prairies, with beautiful views & highlighting the geology & Native American history of the area. To me, one of the really wonderful aspects of this park is that they have fourth grade students volunteer to collect seeds from the prairie plants and plant them in other places in the park during the fall and spring. We didn't get to see the moon that night , but it was nice to see some friends, and walk a hiking trail at night.