Rock Ptarmigan

RedRiderGirl, KMS and I decided that we would hike up to a lake that we'd found a couple of years ago above Independence Mine after Mr. P got called for a flight to Kodiak. We'd been there once before and discovered lots of little waterfalls behind and under rocks and wanted to explore it more, but didn't have time.

This time we climbed amongst the rocks to our hearts content and discovered this little gal s-l-o-w-l-y walking across this rock face. We almost didn't see her at all! I'm sure that it was leading us away from its nest, but we didn't look for it. It was amazing how it kept eye contact with us and deliberately didn't fly away, even though we were very near it.

After our encounter with this little one, we headed back down to the lake and across the little valley for a cross country hike back down to the mine.