Alaska
Iditarod update tonight – Paul Gebhardt is in the lead, and Jessie Royer is twentieth.
Before long the leader may not be the leader, because mushers will be taking mandatory eight-hour and twenty-four-hour breaks – and they don’t all take their breaks at the same time.
Five have scratched – leaving ninety-one racers.
Our Trip to Alaska – Part 3
July 2003
We spent a cloudy, drizzly, day touring Denali National Park in a modified school bus. It turned out to be a good day for seeing wildlife. We had barely entered the sightseeing part of the park when we saw this large, male, grizzly feeding close to the road.
After a short drive we saw this large male moose.
They were not real close to the bus, but we did not need binoculars to see these three animals.
We did need binoculars to see this nursery herd (mothers and babies) of Dall Sheep.
On a clear day we would have seen Mt. McKinley, but that did not happen on this day.
This caribou didn’t seemed disturbed by the bus, and meandered around us for several minutes.
A short time later we came upon a herd of about eighty caribou.
Just before leaving the park we came upon this female grizzly and her cub.
~~~
It was very rainy during the time we were in the Fairbanks area, so we looked for inside things to do – like the museum at University of Alaska Fairbanks.
In our research, we noticed that there was dinner and a show in a little place called Ester.
After supper at the Bunk House Restaurant, we walked to the Firehouse Theater where we saw fantastic slides of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights.) The lecturer knew his stuff.
Then we walked down the gravel street to the Malemute Saloon. I am always concerned when the word “saloon” is attached to a place of entertainment, but it turned out to be a great evening – kind of like Broadway in Alaska!
Robert Service was an Alaskan poet.
The evening combined comedy, music, and poetry.
This is what we saw on the way back to our campsite that night. Sunset at 11:30 p.m.
6 Responses to Wednesday March 5, 2008