Almost Daily Sightings of Moose and Bears in Alaska

We arrived today in Fairbanks, Alaska, the furthest point north in our driving trip. The temperatures here are summer-like, mid-20's celsius, even though it is not officially summer yet. The days are long, with the sunset after midnight, and sunrise at 3 am......so it is difficult to know when to go to bed and get up!

When we last left you we were back on the ferry headed to Whittier, Alaska from Juneau. It was a little less exciting than our first ferry trip (with land on both sides) since the ship left the inland passage heading NW into the Pacific towards the Kenai Peninsula. There were still plenty of whale sightings along the way and we arrived on the mainland two days later. After waiting 20 minutes to enter the one-way, 4 km. long Whittier Tunnel (vehicle and train traffic access flips every half hour) we had a quick stop at the receding Portage Glacier before driving south to the lovely seaside town of Seward. We found an RV site close to the water, exploring the impressive Exit Glacier (with signs showing the recession of the glacier since the 1800's, not seemingly much worse than recently) on the first day and taking a National Park Ranger led boat tour on the second, increasing our (short term!) knowledge of the surrounding area while getting the opportunity to view Orca's for the first time on this trip along with plenty of other sea life (including humpbacks and sea otters).

From Seaward we drove along a very scenic highway north to Anchorage. It was a bit early for the King Salmon full run but their spawning journey had definitely started as we spotted many fisherman standing in Ship Creek hoping to catch the early arrivals. We visited a large hatchery further up the creek where the surviving salmon laid their eggs and they were helped along until they became fingerlings and even larger before re-releasing them back into the creek to head back to the ocean. We also took advantage of the lovely weather to golf at the 2015 Alaska Golf Course of the Year, Moose Run. Unfortunately, since then they seem to have sat on their laurels with regards to maintenance and we found it in sad shape. The highlight of the day was being held up at the par 3 3rd green when we saw an enormous bull moose, with a huge rack, on the green and walking around very slowly. When he finally decided to leave 5 minutes later we watched as the terrified group in front of us reclaimed their golf clubs and balls, while a marshal tamped down the foot marks with a special instrument that let us know this happened often. We had also been warned of a bear on the 11th hole so it reminded us of golfing in Kananaskis back home.

From Anchorage we headed further north to the magnificent Denali National Park, with a brief stop along the way in the unique town of Talkeetna, where Mt. Denali (over 20,000 feet) trekkers assemble for permits and certification before the difficult climb to conquer North America's highest mountain. The locals, liking their town the way it was, successfully lobbied the government to prevent the northbound highway from getting close to their village. We spent two cold and full days exploring Denali NP, using NP tours and buses to get almost 100 km's into the park where vehicle traffic is wisely prohibited. The bus driver-guides were excellent at spotting wildlife along the way but also encouraged the passengers to shout out "STOP" whenever they noticed something moving so the bus would stop very often allowing everyone to get photographs. Our Ranger guide on the first bus had an impressive zoom camera hooked up to the bus monitor system so when she locked into the wildlife we observed it was displayed on the many bus screens, even closer than our cameras or binoculars could emulate, so many of the passengers ended up taking photos of the video screens! We saw plenty of bears (mostly grizzly's), moose, caribou, dall sheep, fox (red and silver) and even a golden eagle, along with plenty more. We managed to see the elusive peak of Mt. Denali (30% visibility daily, formerly Mt. McKinley, but recently changed to the Athabaskan native name of the "big one"). Would-be climbers have a 60% success rate due to both altitude sickness and -40C temperatures, even during the summer climbing season. For a brief moment I was sure I could beat those odds, having climbed Kili 5 yeas ago, but when I heard about the average 3 week climbing schedule and the frigid temperatures, not to mention I would need a lot more more equipment than I brought, and a drive back to Talkeetna to get my permit, I sacrificed another milestone rather than ask my bride to hang around for a month wondering if she would have to drive all the way back home on her own.

On our way to Fairbanks we dropped into the small town Nenana which hosts the annual Ice Classic Contest. They place a tripod in the middle of the very wide Nenana River once it freezes and then run a state-wide lottery to guess when the ice will break in the spring. Tickets are $2.50 and participants need to guess the day, hour, and minute when the ice will break causing the tripod to drop, all of which is monitored by a camera and clock. This year's winner took home $311,000 for projecting the exact time.

Fairbanks, from our first afternoon, seems more appealing than Anchorage. More details to follow!

After driving through the Whittier Tunnel, where a train was waiting to go in the opposite direction through the tunnel, we wandered over to Portage Lake and took this photo. The Portage Glacier has now receded behind the darker mountain on the right so we passed on a boat ride out to the base, knowing that we had plenty of more visible glaciers ahead of us on this trip.

The Exit Glacier in Kenai National Park. We hiked further up the path to catch a glimpse of the bottom end of the glacier but the overall view was not as good. The NP had places along the road and hike indicating where the glacier was in earlier years which was quite remarkable.

A morning stroll along the seaside path beside our waterfront RV park.

The Seward harbour area which is frequently visited by cruise ships.

While in Anchorage we visited the Ship Creek Hatchery. This room contained salmon fingerlings, with thousands in each tank. They also had rooms for Arctic Char and Rainbow Trout, releasing all of the young fish into Ship Creek when they could cope for themselves (without their mothers who die naturally after laying their eggs in the same place they were born).

The main street of Talkeetna, an old mining town established in the late 1800's. The small unique town was formerly led by Mayer Stubbs, a cat, who passed away two years ago, after 20 years on the job.

While driving our van into Denali National Park we came across this moose very close to the road.

Mike the Moose, attempting to hold a 25 pound half rack on my head. 

A grizzly sow and her cub on the bus monitor. The pair where approximately 300 metres away from the bus (further away than others we saw), but our driver-guide was able to zoom in on them for all the passengers to see.

A typical view within Denali NP. The 6 million acre park was carved by glaciers that melted over time to create wide rivers that are now a fraction of what they used to be, It did however provide a lot more space for the abundant wildlife that now populates the NP.