Monday, August 8, 2016

First Moose Sighting


This morning Travalon and I went to a fun coffee shop called the Flying Squirrel for breakfast, then we drove to Talkeetna, a very touristy place much like some towns in northern Wisconsin. There were all kinds of little shops selling souvenirs. Then we stopped at Denali Brewing Company and tried a flight of their delicious beers. We got on the road and drove towards Denali, and in the distance, rising out of the clouds, we could see the crown of it for a moment! We couldn't pull off to take a picture until a few minutes later, when we got to Denali State Park (not the same as the national park), where there is a good viewing point. By then the clouds had covered it entirely, but we could see lots of other mountains, including one with a glacier in it called Ruth Glacier, and a woman standing next to us showed us the shot she got of Denali. It was exactly what we had seen. We hiked there to a higher spot from which you could see the mountains, but Denali (or Mount McKinley, as it is also known) never showed itself to us again today. We drove to the national park and watched a video on how not to get eaten by a bear, then we drove to our lodge on a ridge overlooking the park and had a good Alaskan seafood dinner at the restaurant here with a sweeping view of the valley. We took a ride into the park, and a big moose stepped out of the trees and crossed the road in front of us! That was exciting. We took a short hike but didn't see anything else, although we heard lots of birds.

This is a picture of the sky last night at 11:15. It still wasn't completely dark yet!



 Ruth Glacier


View of mountains from Denali State Park

These next couple of signs were among the humorous ones on the road up to our lodge.



Here is a picture of the moose we saw. It isn't a very good picture, but Travalon did get a better one on his camera that we can upload when we get back home. The moose is on the left side of the photo.



Famous Hat

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