Where The Wild Things Are

Alaska is almost six times the size of New Zealand yet has only one seventh the population. That's a lot of empty wilderness for wildlife to occupy, and everywhere we went were helpful signs advising of the perils of getting too close. 

Our first experience was a bit fishy. 

After settling in with our fabulous hosts, Barbara and Ian, we were intrigued to hear that just down the road was a creek where one could catch rainbow and dolly varden trout, plus coho salmon. In the middle of the city!

We duly purchased 24 hour licences,  headed to Campbell Creek, and caught nothing. Basically, we were stood up on our date with Dolly Varden. 

Never mind, perhaps we were just too late. We therefore tried again at dawn the next day - and quickly got a large coho salmon each,  plus a small rainbow. Cue fresh smoked salmon, and fresh caviar! 

Having succeeded in catching iconic wildlife in Anchorage, we had high hopes for seeing more iconic wildlife in two of the best known Alaskan National Parks, first Denali then Wrangell-St Elias.

The drive up was by Alaskan standards uneventful, with 'only' 1 moose running across the highway, dodging the traffic on both sides. Uneventful that is except for Mary slapping a National Park worker, Alan, after he had just kindly cleaned a rest stop public toilet. 

Mary said it was to deal to a mosquito on Alan's face, and says Alan gave her permission. 

Alan said he was looking forward to telling his wife that he got slapped by a New Zealand woman while at work.

I just kept out of it...

We were staying in Talkeetna, a quaint 2 horse town with good views towards Denali, the tallest mountain on the North American continent. 

Sadly, everytime we approached a suitable vantage point to get the obligatory photo, clouds would approach the mountain...

Mary actually was a bit of a pro taking mountain, river and glacier shots, it was just Denali that refused to cooperate.

Before we headed out for our first wildlife 'safari', Mary had a chance to attend to the face of another man, Rick, who had fallen out of bed in our guesthouse and banged his head dramatically on the bedside table.

Mary: "What have you done, you poor old thing? " 

Rick: "Less of the old"...

Denali National Park has a road with only limited access for private vehicles, so we caught a 'transit' bus. Transit buses cover the same route as the 'tour' buses at a fraction of the price, and allow people to get on and off wherever they wish en route. Theoretically, the transit drivers don't provide the same commentary included in a tour, but in practice there's not a lot of difference. More importantly, if anyone saw any wildlife all we had to do was call out 'Stop' and the driver would do so to allow good views etc.

We were all straining our eyes for signs of caribou, moose and bear when Mary called out 'Stop' and pointed up a hill. The bus stopped, everyone crowded over to our side, and duly got excellent views of a trig station.

Mary was actually a bit of a hero in the eyes of some of the passengers, who commented "Thank you for saying something. I also saw that 'animal' but was too shy to call out"...

On the way to the turnaround point, we saw only a few caribou, mostly obscured by bushes. The word must have got around the park that we had not got our money's worth, because as we drove back we saw more and more caribou on the road, culminating in this beautiful specimen who first blocked the road so we couldn't miss seeing him, then stood in various photogenic poses before sauntering along the side of the bus.

But still no bears...

Next stop was Grenfell St Elias National Park, apparently bigger than Switzerland and with taller mountains.

We stayed in McCarthy, a small settlement with no public road access because there's no vehicle bridge across the nearby river. Visitors park their vehicles, call their accommodation, and walk across a footbridge to be picked up by their hosts, in vehicles ranging from cars to full sized mini buses. We asked how they got  their vehicles across if there was no bridge. Apparently they drive them over the river when it is frozen, which is the majority of the time. 

Our lodgings were wonderful log cabins, with a shared outside shower and toilet, the latter only having 3 sides. 

The first time Mary used the facilities, I had to stand guard, partly so other guests would know it was occupied, and partly to ward off any bears brave enough to be lurking around. 

Our hosts lent us bear spray which we diligently carried wherever we wandered, and there were multiple signs in every building and by the roads in the village giving advice about what seemed to be the inevitable bear encounters. 

So how many did we see? Precisely zero. 

We did wander around an historic copper mine and factory, explored various trails, and viewed wonderful glaciers. 

Driving back to Anchorage we finally saw a bear! One ran out on to the road in the distance, briefly paused to look at us as if mocking our attempts at finding him in the wild, then carried on into the forest before we could get out our cameras. 

If I was to assign human attributes to a wild animal, I would say that bear was rude... 

Never mind, as well as wildlife, Alaska is well known for mountains and glaciers, and the Chugach National Park has plenty of both, plus is apparently the world's biggest coastal mountain range. Time for a cruise! 

I should briefly mention one curious fact about the port town of Whittier - all residents live in the same building, specifically the same apartment block:

The 26 Glaciers cruise certainly lived up to its name and is well worthwhile. One tip to bear in mind: Whittier is known for being wet, and one should dress appropriately, especially when viewing the scenery on the top deck of a high speed catamaran:

The views of icebergs and glaciers up close are spectacular... 

... and one can recover one's warmth by getting up close to reindeer at the catamaran's bar... 

The final chapter of our Alaskan Adventure was to visit a wildlife rescue sanctuary, where there's no shortage of wild animals, albeit behind safety fencing or in cages. 

Moose, elk, reindeer, porcupines, wolves, coyotes, wood bison, etc., etc. 

And bears! 

All the animals had similar stories, being rescued as abandoned orphans or as victims of various accidents. The exception were the wood bison. 

A small number of wood bison were brought to the sanctuary to start a breeding programme, which has proved extremely successful. Wood bison have now been reintroduced to the Alaskan wilderness with another batch in the sanctuary being readied for release. 

Sadly, most of the other residents are permanently injured so will never be able to survive and therefore can't be released. This three legged inmate was trying very hard to crawl through his cage when he saw me, perhaps thinking I was his soul mate.

Mary said it was just feeding time. 

I prefer my version... 

So it was farewell to Alaska, land of open spaces and wildlife roaming free, including lots of bears. 

Allegedly...