Alaska, Part 2

Today I had my first "near moose"!  Our car passed by a large moose cow and her calf on the side of the road, but unfortunately I wasn't fast enough with my camera to catch a shot of them.  What huge, goofy-looking animals.

So, Denali:

Denali National Park is officially the most beautiful place I've ever seen.  Holy cow.  We got rained on, on and off, just about the entire time we were there, got eaten alive by ginormous mosquitoes, and never really got to see Mt. McKinley except for small pieces through the clouds... but it was still absolutely breathtaking.  We camped out at Wonder Lake, which is 85 miles inside the park and only accessible by park shuttle bus.  The bus ride took 5 hours one-way, and I was never bored for a minute of it.  From the bus we saw caribou, dall sheep (like bighorns, but white), a huge kit fox, a golden eagle, a few moose (mooses?), and three grizzlies!  I didn't really even try to capture the wildlife on my camera, as Josh made sure to take approximately 57 photos of every animal we saw (including the rabbits and squirrels).  I'll post and/or link to some of his photos once we get back home.  They are amazing.

After a few cold and rainy nights, we decided to go back to civilization and found a nice little hostel room to shower, and scored an awesome halibut/salmon dinner with wine.  The train ride between Denali and Fairbanks was also really pretty, with huge windows and glass ceilings.

Since returning to the cabin in the woods, we have spent time doing home repairs.  I even hit up one of the local outdoor shops and found myself some Carhartts.  (Of course I should have known that they would carry women's-specific Carhartt work pants in Alaska!)  Oh, and in case anybody was wondering... salmon jerky?  Not as tasty as I had hoped.  Pretty much tastes just like dried out, very fishy salmon.  Kind of blech.

The weather has been rainy here in Fairbanks.  We had been planning to take a canoe trip on the Chena River this week, but with the unpredictable weather, we've changed our plans.  Since we've still got five full days to wander around, tomorrow morning we will head south to Anchorage to explore that area, do some hikes, maybe take a boat ride and check out a glacier or two.  And eat lots more seafood.