Fox Pup's AK Vacation - Day 3: A Day Late & A Dollar Short? I Think Not!

Another early morning and long day, but that is hardly a complaint!  We had to be at the entrance to Denali by 7am to catch the 7:15am shuttle bus.  Personal vehicles are generally not allowed beyond Savage River, which is 15 miles into the park.  Since the road is 92 miles long, they have shuttle buses and tour buses that can take you through the park.  I liked that... it really cuts down on traffic, someone else is doing the driving, you're up much higher than you would be in a car, and there are several people looking for wildlife also.  There were hairpin turns and switchbacks that the drivers are used to on the narrow roads, so we were glad to leave the driving to them!

Everyone living in the places we've been so far has told us how unusual this beautiful weather is.  Temperatures have been in the 60s, wind is calm, and the sky is a deep blue.  The best part about that is that Mt. McKinley is completely visible.  We are told that this only happens a handful of times each year, because usually some portion of the mountain is obscured by clouds. We're thankful and appreciate it!!  We met people on the shuttle bus from Texas, Illinois, England and Switzerland.  The guys from England and Switzerland were camping and hiking in the park, and it was neat to hear about their adventures while they were on the bus with us.



So... aside from the wonderful scenery we've been seeing, we just so happened to see a little wildlife, too.  I picked out a moose right near the road, a couple snowshoe hare running across the road, and a golden eagle in a tree.  Others on the bus found a small herd of moose, grizzly bears, caribou, and dall sheep.  When the day was done, we saw a total of 16 moose, 13 grizzly bears, about 12 dall sheep, 5 ground squirrels, 5 magpie (birds), 2 caribou, 2 snowshoe hare, 2 golden eagles, and a small group of ptarmigan (the Alaska state bird).  Our bus driver said the most moose he's ever seen in one day is 8, and he's been driving on this road for almost 8 years.  We doubled his record! :)  So much for our reputation of being a day late and a dollar short!  It was another day of being thankful for having so much room on our digital cameras!

Bull Moose

Grizzly Bear

More to come!!
- Foxpup

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! 

Fox Pup's AK Vacation - Day 1: Exploring Anchorage

Goose has so graciously allowed me to use this blog to add posts about my vacation in Alaska.  I might add a photo here and there, but a link to all my favorite photos will be added later when I get time to go through the many photos and find the best ones. :)  Onward...

It's our first day in Alaska, and the weather is beautiful!  After a great breakfast at our B&B, we drove around the city to explore and get our bearings.  There were a few photo ops along the way, but just enjoying the mountainous scenery along the way as we were driving was great.  We decided to take a drive south of Anchorage on the Seward Highway, along Turnagain Arm.  There were a lot of places to pull over so we could photograph the scenery.  A couple told us about seeing some bears at a nearby rest area the day before, and some others saw some whales, but we didn't see any such wildlife. :(  We decided to turn around when we got to Girdwood.  Dinner at Sourdough Mining Company was great, including the free ice cream at the end! 

Chugach Mountains along the Seward Highway