Wildlife etc.

One enjoyable part of our trip here has been keeping a list of animals that we've seen in the wild.  No zoo, domesticated, or fenced-in animals allowed on this list.

In no particular order and varying levels of interest and specificity:

moose
black bear
brown bear (grizzly)
northen hawk owl
gray jay
red-backed vole
squirrels
robin
magpie
hare
Dall's sheep
caribou
golden eagle
mew gull
inch worm
caterpillar
beaver
crows
mosquitoes
humpback whale
sea otter
bald eagle
porcupine
mountain goats
sea lion
tufted puffin
orange sea stars
Dall's porpoise
common murre
hornet
king salmon
red salmon
horned puffin
marbled merlet
flies
bumble bees
common raven
Stellar's jay
mouse
red-necked grebe
Canada goose

I will spare you from the mediocre-at-best photos that we have of some of these animals and instead share some stories...

Denali National Park
Most of these animals we saw on our two major camping trips, one up to Denali National Park, and the other down to the Kenai Fjords National Park.  One memorable moment was taking a long 4-hour (one way!) bus ride into Denali National Park.  The bus ride was long trying to keep 3 kids entertained, but it was great having a narrator point out wildlife to us, including seeing my first owl in the wild.  I also keenly remember  seeing a mother grizzly bear going about her work searching for food with two young grizzly bears wrestling each other underfoot.  I felt instant kinship with that mother bear.  The roads in Denali National Park were also crazy narrow, carved into a mountain side with a steep drop off on one side.  So maybe best to leave that to the professional drivers while the rest of us look for wildlife:-)  In Denali we met a guy who works for the Audubon Society here in Alaska (who graduated from the University of Minnesota one building over from mine!), and he pointed out a golden eagle soaring in circles over head that I never would have noticed on my own, much less identified.  While wildlife viewing with 3 young kids is (to put it mildly) not ideal, I did realize how much I've missed it!  Because of our phase in life rearing young kiddos (who I'm very thankful for) I haven't done a true wildlife sightseeing trip in years...and it felt fantastic to get back to a wildlife viewing excursion.  Even if one of our children needed to stop the entire tour bus mid-trip for a potty break on the side of the road:-)

Timothy getting the hang of the binoculars, viewing the grizzly bears at Denali National Park.

Kenai Fjords National Park
We saw the ocean animals on that list on a morning cruise to Kenai Fjords National Park, near Seward, Alaska.  The highlight there was whale watching with binoculars in one arm while nursing and holding Joshua with the other.  Of course when we saw a whale I needed to run to the other side of the boat for a better view, which woke up Joshua.  But the cost of sacrificing a good nap for him was worth it to see a whale, as it was my first time seeing a whale in the wild.  Priorities!!












Salmon
Another memorable wildlife encounter was seeing wild salmon here in Anchorage.  We had a clear view of about 50 salmon just below a bridge we were standing on at a wildlife viewing area called Potter's Marsh.  I knew that at the end of their life cycle salmon leave the ocean, and swim upstream to spawn and then they die.  Sad, but interesting.  But two things stuck out to me when we saw these salmon on their journey upstream, returning to where they were born: 1) They were HUGE, maybe 3 feet long, and 2) clearly looked like they were dying.  Their bodies were battered, with stuff (scales?) flaking off of their bodies, they were a number of different colors, and quite unsightly.  Not the picturesque salmon you see the fishermen catching from the ocean (see photos below).  They were just treading water, making no progress upstream as the tide was going out, waiting for the tide to switch.  They looked (and probably were?) exhausted.  We had the good fortune to be standing next to a local who knew a lot about salmon, and he kindly answered my (ignorant, touristy) questions.

On a related note...it was fascinating to watch the tourist fishing expeditions haul in their catches from the day when we were camping near Kenai Fjords National Park...mostly salmon but also halibut (the huge, flat fish).  One tourist company landed their boats just a short walk from our campsite, so we could see their haul each day.  They would hang the fish up on hooks and lay them out to take a photo, then fillet the fish for all curious onlookers to see:

Tourist fishing group getting ready for the big photo.

Timothy touching the halibut...a flat fish with both eyes on the same side of its head.

Other
These don't technically qualify for the list...but seeing the sled dogs at Denali National Park was a highlight.  (Check out the sled dog profiles here!)  Denali National Park actually houses and cares for sled dog teams year round, and depends on them to deliver supplies and support research expeditions into the park where there are no roads, which is most of the park.  They don't want to build more roads in hopes of keeping the wilderness wild.  So they employ sled dogs to assist with winter travel.  Tourists (amazingly) were allowed to not only see the sled dog kennels, but to pet and interact with the sled dogs:

Petting one of the Denali sled dogs.  Most were very chill, but the rangers did warn me that some of the dogs don't like babies and small children, like Joshua's size.  So Joshua stayed back from some of the dogs.  They were all fine with Matthew- and Timothy-sized children!

There was also a demonstration, with a team of 5 sled dogs pulling a person on a wheeled cart around a track. Driving around Denali we frequently saw volunteers taking the sled dogs for walks around the park.

And what about plants you ask!?!  I am far more partial to those plants...they don't run away when I'm just honing in on a possible identification.  I haven't kept a list of plants we've identified, but Timothy has really gotten into trying to identify wildflowers with me, which makes my heart smile in ways I cannot describe:-)  And Matthew takes the time to literally stop and smell the flowers that he finds on hikes, and asks us to smell them too.  We have a plant-ID book that's great for kids, and have taken the time to identify maybe a dozen wildflowers.

Identity determined!  It's moss heather.  Score.

And our last "wildlife" identification...the constant quest to get a good view of Mount Denali.  Denali is the tallest peak in North America (20,000 feet above sea level) and infamous for its difficulty to see due to rain and clouds.  I've heard an estimate that only 1 of 3 visitors gets to see a full, clear view of Denali.  When we went to visit Denali National Park we had a partial view of the mountain...I could see the base and the top, with the middle third covered by clouds, like this:

Sort of cloudy...but good enough to say we saw Denali!

From here in Anchorage, 180 miles south of Denali, we've had two times when we've seen a cloudless, full view of Mt. Denali.  One was just tonight...the kids played at a playground at Kincaid Park while we could see a full view of Mt. Denali beyond the Cook Inlet, which leads to the Pacific Ocean.  For you fellow map people out there:

Red pin is Kincaid Park in Anchorage just south of the Cook Inlet where we had our picnic dinner tonight.  Looking 180 miles north is Denali National Park, the big green area at the top of this map.

We had perfect picnic weather (the 3rd time this summer that I would call acceptable shorts weather) and had a view of airplanes taking off and landing at the main Anchorage airport.  Lest I paint too rosy an image, here's a reality check: Mid-picnic Joshua gagged on a cracker or something and threw up at the picnic shelter.  But he's fine, we cleaned it up, and all was still good.  I leave you with a picture of Timothy sprouting antlers...they do grow fast, don't they?

At the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage, Alaska