We saw lots of wildlife on the drive. Black bears, grizzly bears, and buffalo.
Wild buffalo crossing the road in the Yukon.
Grizzly bear enjoying some grub.
The Yukon.
Driving through Canada was definitely an experience in itself. It really is vast and extremely isolated. One huge benefit - the days were getting longer as we drove further north. The sunsets were getting later and longer. These pictures were taken after midnight and it took over an hour for the color in the sunset to come to a close, you can see the sun moving along the horizon. Technical sunset 12:10am, sunrise 3:45am with some twilight in between.
After less than 24 hours in Fairbanks, we headed north on the Dalton Highway, a/k/a the Haul Road, deep into the Alaska interior. Talk about broad sweeping views and untouched country. Our first hike was the Summit Trail in the White Mountains Recreation Area. We saw tons of wild berries and flowers along the hike.
Luke's first fishing in Alaska. A little northern pike and an arctic grayling.
Next stop - Denali National Park. This country is insanely beautiful. We did a week long backpacking trip in the Park. Although you can see a ton of the park just by taking the shuttle drive, you really get to experience solitude by hiking in just 6 or 7 miles into the wild. It was just us for days, well, us and the caribou, and the grizzly bears, and the Dall sheep, and the lynx. And these were just the creatures we saw. We followed the river beds when we could, but definitely did our share of bushwhacking and only had to get wet crossing the river a couple of times.
And we're off...excited to have packs on again. It's been way too long. Who cares about the rain the clouds when you're in Alaska?
Kristin avoiding having to get wet for as long as possible. That Toklat river may look small, but it's cold, fast, and powerful.
Our first camp spot.
Day hiking to some bluffs for better views of the glaciers.
Hiking to our second campsite.
Luke summiting some peaks near camp.
The pictures might look like typical grass, but it's actually layers of soft squishy mossy growth. It's like walking on a 20" sponge with tons of flowers, mushrooms, and cool plants.
A sample of the wildlife.
A couple of caribou.
A huge caribou who ran past our campsite.
Dall Sheep.
We didn't see any wolves on this trip, but we did find evidence of them.
We also had a resident canada lynx near our camp. One evening while we were cooking we happened to look up on the bluff overlooking our camp site and spotted a lynx sitting, completely relaxed, just watching us curiously wondering what the heck we were doing out there. He left once he saw that we noticed him. But we saw him again in the morning, we think he was leaving his den for his day of hunting. We didn't see him again and didn't have time to snap a picture - they move pretty fast.
We went from Denali National Park to Denali State Park and backpacked on Kesugi Ridge. Finally, we had amazing visibility from a great vantage point and got to see the big peak. Mount McKinley/Denali is indescribable. It is so massive and so awesome it dwarfs the mountains surrounding it. Of course, the pictures do not even begin to do justice to the breathtaking views.
Look above the clouds for the peak of Denali...it's faint in this picture, but in person, unbelievable.
Camp
More of that amazing tioga floor...flowers, lichen, moss.
The top of Kesugi Mountain above camp.
So the picture is pretty poor, but we were so lucky to have actually seen a wolf on the hill near camp. He was super white against the green background and moved very fast.
Getting ready to hike out.
So many mushrooms in Alaska!
After resupplying and checking out Anchorage, we're heading south to the Kenai Peninsula. We're excited to see the glaciers and do some more backpacking, get out on some sea kayaks, and finally fish for salmon!
