Alaska Zoo in Anchorage

Today we went to the Alaska Zoo. The Muskox had a baby, but it was located where we could not get a good picture. This zoo features animals that live in the northern, colder climates. A large number of the animals were animals that had been rescued--injured or orphaned.
There were some Alpacas. One had been sheered and the other had not.
The grizzly bear was quite active.
This coyote had been serenading us with it's howling as we walked up. Of course, when John was ready to take a picture, it quit.
There were beautiful flower beds and hanging baskets throughout the zoo.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday was not a sightseeing day. We drove down to Anchorage and went to Costco to replenish some of our groceries and also ate at Golden Corral. During our vacation we have not eaten out much; but we have bought Subways occasionally, when we are in a hurry and they are available--not often on the Alaska Highway. We are dry camping at the Adventist Church parking lot where we stayed for a week back in 2007.

Wednesday we stayed put all day in the parking lot. Carol was not feeling her usual self and wanted to rest. We had planned to visit the zoo which is just down the street about a mile, so that is on the schedule for Thursday. The WiFi here is excellent--one of the best we have had. Since the Alaska Conference is next to the church parking lot and they have an open-guest network, they have given us permission to use it.

We moved about five miles to Big Bear RV Park in Wasilla. The previous RV park charged $2 for WiFi, which John refused to pay, because of the principal of the thing. Their nightly charge was more than enough to cover it. We had heard some parks had WiFi charges; but in over 40,000 miles of travel in the past 26 months, this was the first time we encountered it. We had stayed at the Big Bear in 2007. Their rates are lower, WiFi is free, the restrooms and laundry are nicer. The manager of the Homestead Park we left was not very nice when John told him we were leaving because of the WiFi charge. The only thing Homestead has going for it is the location in a pretty grove of trees. Big Bear is out in the open. After getting checked into the park, we drove to Independence Mine. This is an abandoned gold mine that the state has taken over as a state park. There are a number of buildings in pretty good condition; however, most of the mine and some buildings have collapsed. The last 13 miles of the trip was up a pretty stream with a lot of rough water and flowers along the roadside. There was a beaver dam and lodge. Both can be seen in the picture. The evidence indicated it was an active site. The beavers must have been taking a nap or doing indoor housekeeping.

We drove from Valdez to Palmer and passed some potentially-pretty scenes. However, there are a number of forest fires in Alaska right now; and the pictures are hazy. We have to drive some of the same roads when we leave Alaska and trust the fires are out by then. They have been started by lightning strikes. The fires are allowed to burn unless personal property is in danger. We hope the rain forecast for next week will put most of them out. Carol took the picture of the river to show you what glacier water looks like. It makes the water look milky.

After another Kenneth Cox DVD for church we rested for a while and then drove around to the other side of the bay. We came to a small pool that had a momma duck with 10 ducklings following her. After spending some time taking pictures of several Bald Eagles, someone told us there was a grizzly out by the bay. It would come into site and then go behind a small hill. After a short time, it went out into the bay and started to romp around trying to catch salmon. It was not having any luck but it was hilarious watching. After some time it started toward some fishermen who were fishing in a stream that ran into the bay. They started toward the parking lot, and the bear spent some time looking around where they had been. It found a good-sized fish and then headed for the parking lot. Everyone was scattering. It went across the parking lot and up into the woods to eat in private. The eagle is an immature Bald Eagle. We counted six different Bald Eagles at one time. This immature eagle is one of them.

Today we took a Sam Stephens wildlife and glacier cruise out of Port Valdez. In fact, Mr. Stephens was there the evening before when we purchased our tickets, and we were able to visit with him. When we returned from our cruise, both he and his wife were there. They seem to be a very down-to-earth couple. On the cruise we were served a delicious minestrone soup, and I asked her the name of soup company. Found out they are also vegetarians. Our favorite sea animal is the sea otter. When they are not feeding on clams, they lay on their backs soaking up the sunshine. Sometimes there will be two or three and sometimes there will be a large number. They appear to like to watch the tourists go by. The buoy had two sea lions on it when we came up. One got off but then wanted to get back on. It was fun to watch while it made several attempts before being successful. This is the try that was successful. The one already on the buoy was making quite a ruckus. Maybe some of you have seen the noisy sea lions on the wharf in San Francisco. The real highlight of the trip was to see the glacier calve. This is our third trip to Alaska and the first time to see a glacier calve. Two years ago we went on two glacier tours, and when we did the Princess cruise we stopped at several glaciers. None of them calved except some small chunks of ice falling off. Click on the glacier to see the calving. By the way, in blogspot you can double click on any picture to see it in a larger format.

This was a stay-put day. We needed to do the laundry and spend some time on our blog. The WiFi in the Sea Otter Campground was better than some we have had. We are camped next to the Port of Valdez. John is quite certain he saw some sea otters, but was not close enough to get pictures. We saw a harbor seal many times but figure it was the same one in different locations because we never saw more than one at a time. Since there is not much in the line of pictures for today, we are posting some of the beautiful wild flowers we have seen along the many roadways.