Home Again

Our trip to Alaska was great! The clouds were very low most of the time so we didn't get to see the mountains as much as I would like. When the clouds lifted several days into the trip, Jon was surprised to see just how many and how high the mountains were. We didn't even get to see the base of Denali when we went to the park. However, we did have some great critter sightings. We saw Alaska's 'Big Five' in one day: moose, caribou, Dall sheep, bears and a wolf. Plus we were very close to a great horned owl nest with two big, fuzzy babies in it and the adult sitting nearby, two foxes right next to the bus (one kept running in front of us even!) and attack arctic ground squirrels. The best sighting though, was of two big grizzlies hanging out next to the road. We stopped and watched them on the way into and out of the park. One just slept but the other wandered around a little. We got some great pictures with my new camera! I think we only took about 2400 or so pictures. There would have been more if the weather had been better! We had the opportunity to do a lot of hiking and even climbed a mountain at midnight! Gotta love that 24 hours of light, though Jon did have some trouble adjusting to it. I tried to warn him but I guess you just have to experience it to understand! Other fun events included climbing on a glacier, taking a boat out to watch glaciers calving, watching lots of float planes land, biking along the coast, riding on a dog sled (well, it was a cart since it was summer) and seeing lots of bear scat at the nature center I once worked at.