Day 4: Council Road

Highlights Map

Today we wake up relatively early as the weather apps are telling us that in the afternoon it will rain…virtually everywhere in the area. We make a hot breakfast first as besides the rain it is supposed to be bitterly cold today and warmed and bundled up we are ready to go on the second road out of Nome, Council Road.

The road starts from downtown Nome so we take the opportunity to explore a bit more especially as it started to sprinkle. The exploration in this cas means driving with the car through areas we haven’t explored before especially near the port area.

The beach area near the harbor is full of seemingly abandoned machinery, a stark contrast with the flat empty beach.

And of course the machinery is used by birds for nesting, especially ravens which here seem to really like to nest in the abandoned ships and human structures. The arctic ground squirrels meanwhile use it mostly for protection but live in holes in the ground as far as we can tell.

We pass through Nome relatively quickly and soon we enter on Council Road proper that we can follow using the guidebook we received from the visitor center a couple day prior.

The first stop is East End Park less than half mile outside of Nome. It is a well known birding destination as it is one of the first places to melt during spring so it is a preferred destination for birds however when we visit it is later in the season and we do not expect that many birds.

Still there are a few birds around that we enjoy seeing with the Hoary Redpolls being especially fun to watch as they search for food.

The pond itself is relatively quiet and we see only a few ducks on it especially Greater Scaup. More interesting is the abandoned(?) machinery nearby that we explore for a while before moving on.

The next short stretch is full of dredges both smaller and modern and near the ocean and older and abandoned but more impressive on their own ponds on the other side of the road. We stop today at Swanberg Dredge which we saw only briefly the previous day and want to explore more in depth, as long as it doesn’t rain of course.

We escape the rain for the time being and are able to walk the boardwalk round the dredge to explore it from all sides. It is in surprisingly good shape even though it was last functional in the 1940s and we enjoy both the history and the birds that really like the dredge for nesting and hiding from predators.

Next stop is Nome Bridge where we look unsuccessfully for birds for a while but at least find a geocache and then pass Fort David camp, a typical small village from in this area.

After Fort David we pass through a wilder area with jaegers watching us carefully from mounds they selected and now defend from everyone and swans passing overhead.

After we round Cape Nome we arrive on a narrow strip of land between the protected Safety Sound on the left and the wild Bering Sea to the right. It is quite a scenic drive with lots of driftwood especially on the Bering Sea side.

As we follow the shore we find quite a few Nuuk(s), contemporary subsistence camps used for hunting, fishing and gathering. They can be quite scenic looking at least from a distance.

The cabins are sometimes clumped together and sometimes spread out and many times it feels like they are abandoned for some time even though very likely it is not true.

We keep an eye out for any interesting birds on the more protected side of the water and we find quite a few common eiders. They are really looking quite special in their black and white plumage and we enjoy watching them from a distance. We also find a snow goose pair on the shore enjoying the sun even though it is still quite cold.

After passing the long Safety bridge we stop at the Alaska Maritime NWR pullout to look for birds. Unfortunately we have no luck but we see at least some ice floating by and we also eat a quick snack before moving on.

After the bridge the road is passing near a long sandy beach and we take the opportunity to walk along it for a while looking for any interesting shells and seaglass.

What we find is even weirder, a dead walrus that seems to have been harvested as the tusks are missing. There is no indication whether it was hunted and then harvested or it was simply found dead and then harvested. We also find an abundance of Lapland Longspurs on this stretch of road, they are quite beautiful and bold.

Here we see also lots and lots of tundra swans in the distance, we have never seen that many in one place. The terns however are quite unimpressed and seem to be more interested in our car than in the swans.

And then we turn inland and after passing Bonanza Bridge we immediately stop at “The Last Train to Nowhere” exhibit. It is quite an interesting place where three rusty steam locomotives are sinking into the tundra for the last decades. They are the result of an effort to link Nome with Council City by rail during the gold boom that failed right here and the locomotives were abandoned where the rails ended.

It is quite a scenic location and we enjoy it until the cold and strong winds are convincing us to return to the car.

The whole area in fact is quite wild and beautiful and we look for birds from the warmth of the car with no luck really.

At the edge of the marshlands sits Solomon, a small sleepy town that was a boomtown during the gold rush. But then in 1913 a storm destroyed the rown and they relocated to another abandoned town, Dickson, further upstream. Not much is left right now except a couple houses and the ruin of the old Solomon Roadhouse.

From here we are driving along Solomon River with a few stops including one for some beautiful harlequin ducks. We decide to have also a short lunch break nearby while watching the ducks and fearing the dark clouds all around.

There are quite a few ruins, cabins and other remains of the gold seeking days along the Solomon River and we stop a few times to observe them from the road as they are quite scenic.

There aren’t many cars on the road, in fact we barely see a handful the whole day so we have to road to ourselves as we start making our way into the mountains.

The climb towards Skookum Pass is interesting and there are even a few areas of snow on the mountain and soon we reach the top which is one of the places where we encounter another car with people enjoying the view. From here it is downhill towards Council and the end of the road and we are happy to escape the dark clouds.

Our guidebook tells us that from the pass there wil be more spruces but there are only a few here and there for the longest time before finally appearing as we reach the Fox River Bridge where we stop for a bout of birding.

On the road we see our first Northern Harrier of the trip and quite a few Dward Fireweeds as we continue our descent. We are a bit disappointed it is not something more exotic than a harrier but even that is interesting enough.

The most exciting bird we see on this stretch is a Pine Grosbeak a lifer for us and a very friendly bird who couldn’t care less that we were spying on it from a car just a few feet away. But then it starts to rain so we have to continue on to Council, there are just a few more miles left.

At Council the road ends officially even though it continues unofficially through the river to the town on the other side. We do not brave the river as supposedly the crossing can be quite dangerous if you don’t know the right spot to use so we take a few photos and then it is time for the 70 mile return trip.

The return trip over Skookum Pass starts easy enough but then the conditions deteriorate quickly from mild rain, to rain to snow to blizzard. We finally make it over the Pass and the conditions improve tremendously so we breathe a huge sigh of relief and continue on towards Nome.

We keep just in front of the rain from here on even though we stop at Lee’s Dredge for a closer look, the first time there was a car parked here, really weird given the scarcity of cars on the road.

We see a few more interesting birds on the return trip as we stop on bridges on the way back. They are quite difficult to make out between the rocks but when you notice them they are fun to watch, especially to Semipalmated Plover who really doesn’t like to have its photo take and always turns its back to us.

There are lots of flowers on the side of the road and we enjoy watching them at every stop, especially the colorful fireweed.

We arrive back at Solomon where we admire the collection of driftwood in front of the Roadhouse before continuing on towards Nome.

But we have to stop first in the marshlands as we see a red necked phalarope next to the road and surprisingly it doesn’t fly away so we can take photos of the bird for a long time before moving on.

We continue on the road stopping a few more times along the road especially at the Safety Roadhouse which is now open. In the end we decide not to but anything but to continue to Nome and buy some dinner there.

We stop a few more times on the way back to take photos of the beautiful birds next to the road. While the Common Eider is the most beautiful the Short-eared Owl is the most exciting, another lifer for us.

There are quite a few birding tours in the area and we see one of them near the Swanberg Dredge but we decide not to stop as we are cold and hungry. In Nome we buy some food and then it is back to the accomodation to eat it and warm ourselves before going to sleep.