Sunday, July 7, 2013

Back in Alaska


We finally made it back to Alaska together! After a day in Seattle to organize and pack my car, I picked Ryan up at the airport at 5:00 on Wednesday morning and we headed north, arriving in Palmer on Sunday. We were lucky to have one more day than we needed for the drive. The first two days we put in a lot of miles and were then able to take our time during the last three.

The weather was amazing nearly the entire drive and my car held up like a champ. We stuck to our early morning schedule started by Ryan's red-eye flight into Seattle and saw a lot of wildlife along the road. In addition to the usual moose, caribou, deer, bighorn sheep, beaver, fox, bison, and black bears, we saw a wolf in northern BC! Wolf sightings are pretty rare. Despite all the time I've spent in the back country (and on the roads) in Alaska, I've never seen one up here (I did see a wolf in Yellowstone once). The only place Ryan has seen wolves is in Denali National Park. We were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time before it darted off into the woods.

We stopped at Kluane Lake and visited Soldier's Summit - the place where the opening ceremony for the Alaska Highway took place. It's a really cool spot with great information plaques including an audio player where you can listen to the speech given when the highway opened. Unfortunately the turn-off is not signed, but it is definitely worth asking about at the Kluane visitor center nearby.

Soldier's Summit

A lake in the Yukon

Black bear on the side of the road in BC


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