Anchorage

Summer Snow

Driving into Anchorage we experienced a blizzard of blowing Cottonwood seeds. They're all blooming at the moment and when the breeze catches them they go airborne and propagate all over the place. Some of the paths we've walked and hiked even have cottonwood seed "snow drifts".




One of the trees in full dress. Have never seen them bursting like this before.

Stopped by Elmendorf AFB on our way into town. Gassed up, hit the Exchange for a few supplies, and stopped by the drive thru car wash to get the bugs and mud off the car. We're staying in the southern part of the city in a self catering place on a lake. Really quite nice.

Moose Encounter


The big boy.


Our first hike was along the coastal path in a place called Kinkaid Park...an 11 mile nature walk just west of the airport near the middle of town. Not uncommon to see a lot of wildlife there - including both Black Bears and Grizzlies. About 4 miles in we noticed that a group of walkers and bikers had stopped and were watching something ahead, which we assumed was a creature of some sort. Sure enough a big bull moose raised his head and displayed a full rack of antlers. Someone said he was 5 or 6 years old, ie fully mature. He sure looked it. We watched him feeding just off the trail for a while and he was huge. I think I only came up to his shoulder.

In a few minutes he was joined by 3 other juvenile males, so we had 4 of them quite near us. We wanted to get by without spooking them and tried to detour to the left of the trail to give them some room. Unfortunately, while doing so I stepped on a bunch of dry branches and made a lot of racket. One of the juveniles looked up, saw me, and started walking towards me with that relaxed, slow-motion stride of theirs. I quickly stepped into a copse of small trees to put something substantial between the two us and then stood still to see what he would do. He walked up to within a couple of feet of me (just the other side of the tree in fact) and sniffed around for about 30 seconds...trying to figure out what I was I guess. We were literally eyeball to eyeball for all that time. Had a group of 5 or 6 people standing nearby, probably wondering if I was about to become a statistic...or more likely a Facebook film clip: "Man trampled to death by Moose in Anchorage". I could tell that he was just curious though, and not agitated, so I wasn't too worried. Still, it was a little unnerving to be that close to something that big and unpredictable. I was extremely glad (ie relieved) when he lost interest and meandered off. Found out later that the females are the ones to watch out for, especially with calves. Apparently they trample several people a year around here. The males are usually pretty mellow except during the rutting season in September. All in all it was quite an experiemce.

Realizing that we weren't going to be able to pass without risking another close encounter we decided that the better part of valor was just turn around and retrace our steps back to the car.


The object of my close encounter. He got a LOT closer than this, believe me.


Today we drove up north of the city into Chugach State Forest - a really beautiful natural reserve only about 20 minutes from downtown. Turned out that part of the route of the winter Iditarod sled-dog race goes thru the reserve, making for a nice day hike along Eagle River. So, that's what we did. Really a very pretty walk thru the forest. Saw some big bear scat but no bears. Moose droppings too. The photo below is one of the views from the trail.


So far have been pretty impressed with Anchorage. It's in a gorgeous setting and there are a ton of things to see and do. We'll be here until Friday.