Reminiscing June 28th in Ivvavik

After surveying one of my study sites of Moss campions (Silene acaulis), my field assistant and I hiked past the southernmost part of the park (that I had been to).

During the most productive part of the year, this landscape was covered with purple Northern sweet vetch (Hedysarum alpinum) plants.  Therefore, the land was alive with various pollinators visiting the flowers - sulphurs, whites, bumblebees, etc.  Hard to imagine Arctic full with so much life, for most people.

Reminiscing July 10th in Ivvavik

Once we learned that we will be leaving Ivvavik on July 16th, my field assistant and I decided to take a day off on July 10th and go on a hike north along the Firth River and go to places that we had not yet traveled to and see what kind of plants, animals, and whatever Ivvavik has to offer us on that day (and also see if we can find spots to cross the Firth River, or so my field assistant imagined).

This is a nice fishing/painting spot called "Pole Cache Spot" because there is an Inuvialuit pole cache just close by.

Halfway to Heaven of Ivvavik National Park - Part 2

June 21, 2011

Halfway to Heaven of Ivvavik National Park - Part 1

Happy 2012, everybody! Life is still busy regarding school work, and with the BC weather being so normal and so crappy, I have been spending a lot of time indoors.

So I thought I'd share the last of my landscape photos from Ivvavik National Park. In addition to the hikes to popular destinations Inspiration Point and Sheep Slot, the best named and most beautiful destination is Halfway to Heaven. It is about two to three hours from the Sheep Creek campsite and a pretty good hiking-workout. From what I gathered, it was named because the hikers who gave its name experienced a bad storm on that day and thought they'd perish on that day.

I went to this spot twice last year - the first time was on June 21 and it was cloudy and windy. The second time was on Canada Day and it was sunny and hot and humid. Such is the (unpredictable) weather in the north in the summer.

As you can see, there are very few vegetation that survive up here, except some Dryas spp. and Phlox.