Day 8: Anchorage to Girdwood

Though it looked like rain at the start of the day, the weather soon cleared and we had nice blue skies.

We walked to the airport to pick up our next rental car so that we could drive down to Girdwood and travel at our own pace for the remainder of the vacation. It was a long walk, longer than I had thought after viewing the map. We made it, at last, and headed out of Anchorage, and towards Girdwood.





Our first tour was to view the Portage Glacier. We were there way early for our 1:30pm cruise, so we asked if we could switch it to the noon which was in 10 minutes. They said no problem, because the boat wasn't full, and we left immediately for the glacier.





When it was over, it was only 1PM, and the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center entrance was very close to Portage Glacier, and we had to head back to the Highway anyway. With the toursaver, it'd be $7.50 for both of us to see the animals there, so I decided to call the Talkeetna Air Taxi people to see if the tour was still scheduled for 7:30PM. When I called though, they said the weather was iffy, and they said it'd probably be best to reschedule, even though there would be no guarantee on that day either. Then she mentioned the fact that they hadn't been doing glacier landings for a few weeks due to the conditions up there, so that sealed the deal. We canceled the helicopter tour altogether, which was sad, because it was something we both really looked forward to.

So now we went through the gate of the Conservation Center, and drove to the first animal, which was moose. National Geographic people were there, and there was also a huge puddle of water between the road and the fence to better view the animals. I thought twice, and then decided to try to find the most shallow way to get near the moose, and I took some pictures and moved on. My mother was disappointed that National Geographic took footage of animals like that, having assumed they only took footage in the wild.





We headed around for a bit, and ended up taking a few pictures of Caribou and Musk Oxen, but ended up at the bears.





I sat to write in my journal while we waited for them to come into view. When I had just begun, an ATV came up to the fence, and a guy threw food into the bears and called them, so I went back out and prepared for the bears. While out there, my mother pointed out a coyote on the other side of the water, so I took a picture as well as I could, and then watched as the bears came for their food.





We were lucky to get there right when they had been fed, because there wasn't a huge crowd yet. The crowd came shortly as tour bus after tour bus came through the place.





After we had enough of the bear, we drove down further where I saw a Wood Bison alone near a fence. I walked up to the fence but kept my distance, hoping it'd move away from the fence so I could get up close for a shot. I didn't have to wait too long. It came close again so I had to back up, but I had taken a few shots. I waited for it to back up again, and then took more and decided to leave. I felt like I was taunting it almost just by being there and having the fence between us.





Isn't he cool?

We went back to see if the coyote was anywhere to be seen because I wanted a better picture of that, and it was beautiful. We couldn't find it, but while there, a lady showed us the map of the place, and said there were also Black Bear and I saw the word "Lynx" so I decided to go check that out. The Black Bears weren't out, and the other bears over there were far away and sleeping. I couldn't even see where the Lynx was, so we decided it was time to head out. It had started to crowd from the tour buses anyway, so we stopped by the gift shop, just to look around real quick, and then started back up to Anchorage.

It was a beautiful drive back, and I was looking forward to driving it again the next day.

We walked around Anchorage, checked out some stores, and had some food when we got back. Here are the only pictures I took of the city.

Day 2: Denali National Park

This was our only full day at Denali. This is such an immense park, and it just seems to draw you in. The day we left, I had already begun to miss it, and I hadn't even spent much time there. We were again, very lucky, and were able to see Mt McKinley.

I'll start off with a photo of one of the many buses that are allowed into the park. Beyond a certain point, vehicles aren't allowed, only buses and perhaps photographers/lotto winners (I hear).





Not a great picture, but I didn't really take many pictures in Denali. Not nearly as many as I would have liked to. The problem was, being on the bus, we only made a few stops, and it was hard to set up for any shot with only a small bit of window to poke a camera out of..

The next time I go to Denali, yes, I hope there is a next time, I will be doing some major hiking.

Now, to stay in format with my first day post, just for the heck of it, I'll post the pictures I took of Denali (Mt McKinley) while in the park.





Again, I didn't get to take many pictures in the park, since the opportunities didn't present themselves, and it's really hard to take pictures in a bus when people say they're cold. I don't like taking pictures through glass.





We did spot some wildlife, and were able to stop for those. We weren't allowed off the bus, so these are the best shots I could get. Also, we went later in the day, probably leaving around 8:30AM, and didn't see much wildlife. Apparently the much earlier departures get all of the wildlife! Next time I'll know..

People were saying they saw things that I couldn't see. These people had binoculars, I didn't. My camera can work as a pair of short range binoculars, but since they're just 70-200mm, they can't zoom out too far. Here are a few shots of caribou. These were WAY out there.






And there were a few bear sightings, though one of them was more of a speck sighting. The only viewable bear on the bus, was this one.





Alas, we were nearing the end of the bus ride, after having gone out to Fish Creek Turnaround. We had a few moments of rain, and a few moments of hail, but they only lasted a few minutes each, and the sun was back out. We had all given up hope on seeing any more wildlife, and were all disappointed having not seen that much.

We saw some vehicles stopped ahead, and then we realized there were moose right alongside the road. Everyone went "SHHHHHHHHHH!" at the same time, which sent one moose running. I found that rather humorous myself. We inched our way forward and spotted another one, just taking it easy and chewing on some leaves. It was the closest encounter we'd had all day, so even though it was just a moose..yeah, we get these in Maine, big deal haha, it was still a wildlife sighting, so we left the bus tour feeling somewhat better.





Denali is definitely a place to explore on foot, and I really would love to go back. The shuttle bus is great for people to get out there, but to just stay on the bus the whole trip and only get off for a few short breaks isn't as exciting.

Upon returning to the start of the park, our bus driver told us a dog sled demonstration would be starting soon, but she didn't want everyone to get off at the stop to go see it, because there may not be enough room. Not that many people exited at the stop, so we decided we'd go check it out.

I hadn't realized how into running these dogs were until I saw this demonstration. All of the dogs were going crazy, and standing on their dog houses, trying to be the chosen one.

I took a liking to this one, named Aurora, though Aurora wasn't chosen.





While bringing the dogs they select to run, to be hooked up, they carry them with their front paws off of the ground. They do this so they can keep control of the dogs, because the dogs get very excited and will lead them to be harnessed, rather than the other way around.




And once they're all hooked up, they're ready to go. When the break is released, they're off.




When the demonstration was over, we headed over to the Visitor's Access Center on the free shuttle. We were both pretty hungry, since we stayed at a hostel, so didn't have a real breakfast, or lunch. I would have bought a sandwich at the Wilderness Access Center (WAC) before we left, (not to be confused with the Visitor's Access Center), but the everyday normal sandwiches were over $10. Yep, no thanks.

We ate at the Morino Grill, and I had an "Aurora Burger" with fries for $9. We still had time to waste after that, so we went to the gift shop, and then went down to the Denali Train Depot. They had some information to look at down there, so it was pretty interesting. While down there, a train came in, so I decided to take a picture of that, before finally being picked up by the shuttle to the WAC, and then yet another shuttle to the hostel. Lot's of shuttles.