Fall is my favorite season in Alaska. All of the color and none of the mosquitoes! This fall I took a few little trips up north, trying to catch the colors on the tundra.
My timing was not the best. We had a late spring this year, which led to a late fall. I expected a lot more color way up north on the Haul Road than I actually found there. But there were bits and pieces.
I had the same problem when I drove the Denali Highway Labor Day weekend. You know when you mix green and red when drawing or painting and get a muddy brown hue? That’s pretty much what I found in the Tangle Lakes area. In other years, I’ve come through around Labor Day and the colors were peaking or past the peak. Global climate change or just an off year? Things got better after I crossed the Susitna River.
Continuing north to Denali National Park, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The aspens had not even begun to turn! The tundra was the same muddy mixture of green turning red that I’d found in the Tangle Lakes area. What a disappointment! Most years the colors start by mid-August in Denali.
There WERE occasional spots of brilliance on this trip, but not a lot.
I even drove over Hatcher Pass, only to find more of the same. Not the most colorful Alaskan autumn I’ve ever seen.
Another challenge on these trips was the weather. It was the rainiest August I think I’ve ever experienced, raining practically every day for the entire month.
September was a different story. It was one of the most fabulous Septembers I’ve ever had the joy to experience in McCarthy. Sunshine nearly every day. It was brilliant!
I had to stay close to home for most of the month, so instead of the brilliant reds and oranges of the tundra, this year was all about the golden hues of aspens, willow and cottonwoods in the lower elevations. I had to turn to fireweed and roses for my red and orange fix.
The leaves have fallen now. Alaskans have to look to the sky for their color fix now, to the brilliant hues of the aurora. But I’m following the fall. I’m now in the Pacific Northwest, where autumn is just beginning. Lucky girl, I get to do it all over again!
I know what you are saying when you say the fall colors are muted. I have gone up the Dalton in late August and the intensity of the color was surreal.
Autumn is my favorite season in Alaska too! The colors can be phenomenal and look lovely in your photos. Even if it’s not the most brilliant ever, it is still spectacular in my book!
Thank you so much! Some years the colors are so bright it’s unreal. Guess I’m kinda spoiled.