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posted: August 15, 2025 |
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This page begins with some garden plant photos that were taken between mid-July and the first part of August. After that is a trip to Twelvemile and Eagle Summits, which include a moose, a white-crowned sparrow, and several hundred or thousand caribou, who knows how many. As you go down the page you'll find a Crepe Cake, and after that is a trip to Denali National Park and photos of two different rare and uncommon wildflower species (Arctic Gentian (Gentiana algida) and Pygmy Gentian (Gentiana prostrata)). Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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| Begin Garden Plants and Flowers |
These three photos were all taken in our garden by Kazuya. The first one is Mallow aka Malope, while the second and third are snapdragons.
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Here are two photos of bouquets or arrangements that Kazuya created from our garden flowers. We always have the most beautiful arrangements in the house during garden months. The third shot is our patch of Asiatic Matrix Lilies.
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Here are three shots of our red lilies.
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| End Garden Plants and Flowers, Begin July 18 |
As we climbed from what we refer to as Diversity Gulch up to the Pinnell Mountain Trail we stumbled upon several wildflowers, and here are two of them. The first one is Frigid Shooting Star (Dodecatheon frigidum), with a Bumblebee, and the second one is Monkshood (Aconitum delphinifolium). I posted shots of all of the others last time.
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Well! Here's something one doesn't see every day, a moose with its head totally underwater, and then it pops up chewing a mouthful of water plants that it found. It did this several times for our amusement.
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Here's a White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) that came and posed not 15 feet away from us, thank you.
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We had hoped to sight some caribou, and we were not disappointed. Who knows how many we ultimately saw, probably well over a thousand all in all.
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On that little snowfield they were slipping and sliding along - be careful. The third shot in this row was actually taken on the 19th, not on the 18th, oh well, not a big deal.
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| End July 18, Begin July 19 |
These shots on August 19th were all taken after hiking a short distance from the Eagle Summit Wayside. All of these shots are of the same herd, which we were able to approach amazingly close by sliding downhill on our butts and stopping for periods of time to let them get accustomed to us.
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Here are three additional shots of the same herd.
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Here are three shots as we were able to get closer.
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And even closer.
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But then we were too close and it was time for them to stop chewing their cuds and move on.
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| End July 19 |
Kazuya has been making fancy Mille Crepe Cakes for selling at Farmers Market this season and this is one that he made for us, using the leftovers from the one he made for sale. WOW!
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| Begin July 31 |
Now we're on a three day and two night mini-vacation to Denali National Park. The first shot shows the Savage River, which is as far as the public (us) can drive. The second shot shows the Savage River parking lot, where we hiked the Savage River Loop Trail from. The third shot shows an Arctic Gentian (Gentiana algida). One of our major goals for this trip was to find this wildflower. We were pleasantly surprised that we found it so quickly and that there were so many of them. This is considered a rare and uncommon species. We have only found it at two other places in our travels through the years - once in Japan on Hokkaido, and once on the Pinnell Mountain Trail.
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Here are three more shots in which you can find Arctic Gentian (Gentiana algida). In the second shot Kazuya is pointing at a plant and in the third shot I am pointing at a different plant. You can see that the plants are right beside the trail. We seemed to be the only people who even noticed them.
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Here are two more shots of Arctic Gentian (Gentiana algida) and also a shot that looks back along the trail that we have just hiked.
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When we noticed this plant it was truly an "OH WOW!!" moment. This is a wildflower that is so rare and uncommon that we never truly expected to ever find it again. We found it in one tiny area last year in Yukon, Canada's Tombstone Territorial Park. It is Pygmy Gentian (Gentiana prostrata) and it is so tiny as to be practically invisible. I noticed the first one only because the sun was shining brightly on a blue snowflake. Yes, the flower is about the size of a large snowflake. So, after that we started to search for blue snowflakes and we found many of them scattered along the trail. We were astounded, for sure. Of course the center shot is one more Arctic Gentian (Gentiana algida) - the interior of the flower, with an insect inside.
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Here are three additional shots of the Pygmy Gentian (Gentiana prostrata). Hopefully you can get an idea of the size by comparing it to Kazuya's finger. Truly the size of a snowflake.
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And here are three more shots of the Pygmy Gentian (Gentiana prostrata). In the first and second shots please notice the bumblebee for scale, and this is an Alaska bumblebee, maybe one-half the size of a bumblebee from the Lower 48. It seemed to really get a lot of nectar from down in there.
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| End Page 1, but July 31 continues on Page 2 |
| Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. Now, please go on to Page 2 for the continuation of this month's adventures. |
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