Fox Pup's AK Vacation - Day 2: South... Then North

Joe Boxer, a grizzly bear

Today started out with a drive south on the Seward Highway again, but this time to Portage to visit the Wildlife Conservation Center.  This is a drive-through/walk-through park that contains common Alaskan wildlife such as reindeer, caribou, grizzly bears (one named Joe Boxer that we got to photograph), elk, porcupine, moose, bison, and bald eagles.  It was neat to see the animals, and they have lots of room to roam there, but it was still hard to see them "behind bars". 




We then drove north back through Anchorage and continued up the Parks Highway to Talkeetna.  At one of our stops along the way, we heard that there were whales swimming next to a raft in the river, but once again, we were a little too late to see them.  A man made the comment that we're a day late and a dollar short.  I hope the whole trip isn't like that! 
 

One of the many awesome  views of the Alaska Range

From Talkeetna, we took a flight on a small plane around Mt. McKinley.  Since the weather was once again gorgeous, the flight was amazing.  Sunny and blue skies, calm winds, and a great pilot made for an adventure of a lifetime!  We learned a lot about the area (including that Talkeetna was the town where the TV show Northern Exposure was based), and we saw mountains, glaciers, rivers, and forests up close.  Our pilot flew us to 11,000 feet, so that means the peak of Mt. McKinley was still over 9,000 feet above us!  So cool!  Makes you feel like an ant next to something that huge, though.  It was difficult to keep up with the photography with so much beautiful scenery!  I was very thankful for 4 GB worth of space on my camera's memory card, and that I didn't have to stop every 24 or 36 snaps of the shutter to change the roll of film.  If you happen to watch Sarah Palin's show "Alaska", watch for her to be flown to a mountain near Mt. McKinley and climb a portion of it.  Our pilot flew her to that spot. :)

After that flight, we headed toward Denali National Park.  Unfortunately though, it was dark for much of our drive, so we couldn't see a lot of the scenery.  And... we saw two mosse, but they were both just hit by cars (the cars were still there with them).  We were glad when we found our lodging for the night, and did so without adding to the moose casualty numbers!