Apart from the Big Ticket attractions (Big Five Beasts and The Mountain), the Park offers many quietly interesting things to see and think about. And photograph. Some are the physical structures: rock, whether monolithic or fragmented or river rock rolled smooth and round by silty streams and maybe ice.  Some are the plants; they live a hard-scrabble existence, seven months a year covered in snow or harried by wind and cold. In early June, the park is awake, and most of the snow is gone, but it still isn't warm by human standards.

There are nonetheless warming views of inviting trails (keep talking, "Hey, Bear, Hey, Bear") and frigid lakes.

131A4530-3 131A4525-3 131A4504-2 131A4605-3

Aside from the natural world, it is remarkable to see what the enterprising invaders - miners, mainly, trying hard to find gold - were willing to put up with, living far off what passed for the Grid in the pre-Park days. The Kantishna Roadhouse was an original end-of-road roadhouse. It now serves hikers and bus-riders (and a few bikers). Near Polychrome Pass the road to Kantishna included a big curve cut into a steep sidehill that seemed to be mainly gravel (and maybe inherently unstable). Dangerous land slippage on that curve has now severed the road to Kantishna. Repairs before 2023 are unlikely. The early miners were a hardy bunch, and some wintered over. Maybe slippage wouldn't have bothered them, but they were on foot, or had horses or dog teams. The true locals, who have lived in the middle of Alaska for thousands of years, left few marks, but they - we are told - used the lands now in the Park only seasonally and didn't winter over. 

Shale and fragmented rocks make patterns.

131A4395-3 131A4388-3
131A4421-3

Rolled smooth by silty streams and glaciers, river rocks are unique and seem to ask to be held and turned.  131A4545-2 131A4551-2 131A4549-2 131A4538-3 131A4563-2

Plants live a challenging existence this far North and at this elevation.  Water droplets refract after a spring shower.  Lichen succeeds and entertains, and nourishes caribou when show covers the ground.

131A4509-3 131A4406-3

Left: Leaves from the prior fall emerge when snow melts. Right: Signs of​​ stress​: the bleached trunk of a low bush, disfigured by wind and defeated by climate, testifies to the challenges broadleaf plants face in the Park.

  131A4410-3 131A4398-Edit-5-2