MOOSE!!!

This entry is mostly for my friend Linda, who is moose crazy! I will back up and tell you about Denali another day, but I will mention that our moose spotting began there. We saw a mother and a calf right in our campground at Denali. Luckily, we were in the car at the time. It was late in the day and we were heading back to our campsite after taking our showers. There they were, just walking along the edge of the woods at the side of the road! Being that close to a moose is intimidating. They are absolutely huge! Getting close to a moose is not a smart idea, especially if she has a calf with her. Of course the temptation was greater than the danger, so there we were, faced with a decision. We compromised by staying in the car, my husband's foot ready to hit the gas, me with the camera out the window, both of us silent. That was probably a run on sentence, but this isn't a grammar essay for English class. We watched as the mother fed on vegetation, reaching for the leaves on trees. The calf was all legs-spindly ones at that. Being a youngster, the calf wandered away from its mother from time to time. When it got more than a few steps away, the mother made noises that were obviously some kind of communication that the baby understood. She seemed to be telling it that danger was near, and it needed to stay close. I took some pictures, trying not to spook them or disturb them. Since they were in the middle of a campground, I figured they were used to people, but sometimes those are the most dangerous of animals. They get very bold when they lose their fear. We did not want to experience a moose kicking us or the rental car. She eventually wandered off into the woods and we continued on our way to the campsite.
The next morning while I was in the wash house and my husband was sitting in the campsite, the same duo walked right through our campsite! Of course I missed it. Typical. He wasn't sure what to do, so my husband stayed still and quiet until she passed through. Little did we know that this was the first of several moose sightings.
We left Denali and headed north. It was a warmer day. At 11:30 am it was 59 degrees. We stopped to get gas in a small town called Healy. When I say small  town, I mean small. These towns seem like they consist of not more than a gas station or general store. We would occasionally detour off of the highway to check out the "neighborhoods". Some of these areas were extremely secluded and rugged. I can't imagine what it is like in the winter. We weren't even way up north in Alaska where the paved roads end but it was pretty isolated. We stopped in a quaint little town called Nenana. It reminded me of the TV show Northern Exposure. It had a few streets and some businesses. If we go back, I would take more time there. They had a great little visitors center. The woman working there gave us very good information, great maps, and showed us a fancy way to fold the pages of our Lonely Planet book. It was a pretty cool little tip. She taught us to fold the page in a certain way that results in the tip of the page sticking out like a little bookmark. Credit for the idea was given to some other travelers that passed through there and stopped for information.  Visitors centers are great places to stop when you are traveling. They usually have local maps and very knowledgeable people staffing them. We make it a point to stop at them no matter where we are traveling. They can usually guide you to little hidden gems that you won't find in tour books. If you are looking for a place to eat, don't just ask where they would recommend that you eat. Ask where they eat. You will usually end up with a more interesting answer.
We continued north to Fairbanks. The city was large enough to contain big box stores, so we stopped to purchase a few things to make our sleeping accommodations more comfortable. Yes, it is possible to make sleeping in the back of a van a comfortable experience.
We turned off onto Chena Hot Springs Road. It was a beautiful drive with fabulous scenery. When we finally reached the springs, we were very disappointed to find a big tourist trap. We did not come to the wilds of Alaska to see a tourist trap. Some of it was probably pretty cool (literally, since they have a building made of ice), but it did not compare to what nature had to offer. They had man made pools that were fed by the hot springs. We took a quick look, but it just grossed me out a bit. It seemed like a bunch of strangers in bathing suits taking a hot bath together. They even rented bathing suits. Can you get more disgusting than that? They had things like rides pulled by sled dogs and other touristy attractions. We spent very little time walking around there. We headed back down the long Chena Hot Springs Rd, happy to be out of there. It was late afternoon by then, so we stopped along a river to take a break and have a snack. As we were sitting there in our folding chairs, two men pulled up in an air boat! Wait, were we in the everglades? Man, that WAS a long road!  No, it turned out to be just two guys out having fun. One was a retired engineer, and the other was a school principal. Turns out they made the boat themselves. It was all my husband could do not to ask for a ride. That would have left me there in the wilderness alone, so he did resist. The principal is in charge of several  K-12 schools that have a total of 32-35 students per school. What a different world.
Okay Linda, here we go. Shortly after we left, we came upon a male moose in a pond. We stayed at a safe distance, keeping the car between us and him, and the doors open. He put his whole head under the water to eat. When he came up, the water would stream down from his antlers. It was spectacular. We stood in silence and watched him for a long time. He could really stay down there for quite a while. Shortly down the road, we spotted a female moose doing the same thing. Then we came upon a female running along the side of the road in the grass. She crossed the road behind us. I was very glad that she didn't decide to cross in front of us.
We were able to get some great pictures of the various moose. When we were out west years ago, we learned that if you see a car pulled off the side of the road, you should slow down and be prepared to stop. Most likely they have spotted some wildlife off to the side. It seems that other people have learned that as well. We usually ended up with some company when we pulled of to watch the moose. Fortunately, there aren't many people around, so it didn't take away from our experience.  We saw more moose during our trip, but I will denote them when I get to their locations.
Some of you probably would have loved the hot springs, but I'll take happy hour by the river and some good moose spotting any day!

Glen Highway

I will write about places other than Alaska at some point, but I may as well stay on the subject until I finish it. From Paxson, we headed south on the Richardson Hwy toward Glen Allen, stopping along the way at road houses and campgrounds. There was absolutely nothing but road and scenery from Paxon to Sourdough. The scenery in Alaska is spectacular. You can be driving down a road and see green mountains on one side and snow covered mountains on the other. It is more vast than I could ever hope to describe.  There are beautiful clear rivers and rivers with gray glacier water. Sometimes they merge, creating a really cool effect. There are a number of restored road houses along the highways, which are remnants from the gold rush days. We stopped at the Sourdough Roadhouse for a soda. There  was a married couple working there for the summer. They lived in South Carolina the rest of the year. She is a retired engineer for the power company, and he is a project manager turned Presbyterian minister. It sounded like a great life. It is so worthwhile to take the time to talk to people along the way when you travel. After listening to their advice about various campgrounds,  we continued on our way. We discovered a campground in the Caribou Creek State Recreation Mining Area. It was free, empty, had secluded campsites, and plenty of leftover firewood. What a find! There were gorgeous wildflowers, tall rock faces, a river, and mountain views. Paradise! It was obvious that there were many moose in the area by the amount of droppings we saw, and we came across some enormous moose footprints. One thing we learned quickly during our trip to Alaska was that we had to constantly be alert and on the watch for wild animals. After hiking and investigating the area, we built a really big campfire, parked ourselves in the folding chairs, and did some reading and relaxing.
The next morning was another cold and drizzly morning. We packed up and headed for Matanuska Glacier. The weather cleared and the temperature rose into the 50's (yes, it was still June). We hiked around on the Glacier for 2 hours. We didn't spend the money to go with a tour guide and wear crampons, so we carefully picked our way around the less treacherous parts of the glacier. It was awesome! I can really appreciate the color referred to as glacier blue now. In some areas, we had to jump across narrow streams of melting glacier water. At one point, the gray mud was so soft and sticky that we were sinking down to our ankles in it. That was a bit scary for my taste. We made it safely back to the car and continued down Glen Hwy.
Glen Hwy is a gorgeous drive, with beautiful mountain views and plenty of birch to look at. We stopped at a secluded little lake called Wiener Lake, which was right down the road from Long Lake. I am not kidding!  Of course we both reverted to childhood and giggled over the names of the lakes. They were really beautiful. We stopped at a strange little roadside place and had vanilla cream soda. It was like a general store with RV sites on one side, llamas and alpacas out front, chickens and ducks out back, and all kinds of farm equipment on display. Very odd. They sold items that the owner's wife had knitted out of the wool from the animals.
There are just so many cool and unpopulated places along the roads in Alaska. We pulled off to investigate many times a day. Sometimes the trail heads for the trails that we planned to hike seemed to have vanished. We usually found some other cool place instead, so we were never disappointed.

Snow in June and the Tangle River Inn

There are really only a few paved highways in Alaska. If you stay on one of them, you really can't get lost. However, you will miss seeing most of Alaska. Rental car companies ask you to sign a form stating that you will not take the car off of the paved road. This is almost impossible to do. You just have to be very careful and use common sense. Keep in mind that if you venture off onto an unpaved road and you break down or get stuck, you may be in for a very long and lonely wait. There is no cell phone service in some areas. Even if you do have service, the service station may be many miles away. You might be able to flag down a passing motorist, but it may be hours before you see one. There are large wild animals in Alaska. You do not want to be their dinner!  The Denali Highway is paved for part of the way, and then the road continues, but the asphalt stops. We drove south on the Richardson Highway, and turned onto the Denali Highway. It was raining, cold, and night time. We were in the tundra. There would be no trees to tie a tarp to for protection from the rain. Instead of trying to cook dinner, we stopped at an old road house called the Paxson Lodge and each ate a bowl of chili. From there, we drove down the Denali highway until the pavement ended. We carefully continued on until we reached the Tangle Lakes Campground. This is a free campground, run by the Bureau of Land Management. We grabbed a campsite along a clear, rushing river. It also had a view of the lake. Score!! This was in early June, but it was pretty darn chilly outside. We went to sleep to the sound of the river. When we woke up, it sounded more like it was raining outside. The windows of the van in which we were sleeping appeared to be fogged up. My husband, the early riser, went outside and discovered that the van windows were actually covered by a dusting of snow!! When I crawled out of the van I was greeted by a tiny snow man sitting on the picnic table holding a yellow flower. Over the next hour or two it kept changing back and forth from rain to snow. By 9 am, it was 32 degrees and snowing like crazy! Like idiots, we decided to pack up and go driving farther down the unpaved road. We really wanted to see some caribou and this was supposed to be a great place to spot them. The snow kept getting deeper as we drove and the road was getting muddy. Since we were in a rented mini van, not a 4 wheel drive vehicle, we decided to turn back and find someplace to eat a hot breakfast. We were not exactly near a city with many options. We found the Tangle River Inn. It was actually more of a fish camp. There were tiny "cottages" and a main building with some guest rooms and a restaurant. It was warm, dry, and the only place around for miles. The snow turned to rain as we sat and stared out at the lake across the street. We had a huge, hot breakfast. The service was great. It was a typical country style place with wood paneling, cutesy curtains, photos of the family that owned the place, fishing photos, etc. At the next table were two Bureau of Land Management workers. A sure sign of a good breakfast place is one that the local working people eat at. Almost 2 years later, I can't remember what we ate, but I do remember being thrilled that the Tangle River Inn was open for breakfast. I also remember that the food was good. It wasn't a cheap breakfast, but we were quickly finding out that nothing in Alaska is cheap. By the time we reached Paxson there was no sign of snow. We felt like we had experienced a private little winter wonderland.

Howling Dog Saloon

Since I started out with a story about the Howling Dog Saloon, I may as well tell you more about the place. It is at the intersection  of Elliott Hwy (Rt. 2) and Steese Hwy(Rt. 6) in Fox, Alaska. The bar is nothing special, but if you want to get a feel for the local color, its worth a stop. Its kind of dark on the inside, with an area for a band, and a bar that has many, many bras hanging above it. We were there early, so we didn't see anyone lose or donate theirs. There is an outside patio with picnic tables, which is where we hung out during out visit. Unpaved parking lot, a little bit of untended grass.  The clientele consisted of mostly young adults, probably in their 20's and 30's, in various types of dress, from dark goth make up on one girl to t-shirts and jeans. Many tattoos. Very casual. Not a night club atmosphere. Definitely the local dive hangout bar. Based on the conversations that we had, many of these young people were drifting through life, unsure of their path, and just ended up in Alaska. The guy that dubbed us "travelers" was a miner, who worked long, hard hours in the wilderness. He had to take a bush plane to get to work. When he worked, he worked many days and many hours. When he was off, he was off for long periods of time. His earnings sounded good, but when you consider the high rent in the area, and the fact that he had to spread those dollars to last during his off time, it made for a tough life. If you are not afraid to venture into such a place, this is really a great place to go to meet local citizens and hear some stories about life in Alaska.

Why the name?

So, I guess I am now a blogger. First, let me explain the crazy name. My husband and I were traveling around Alaska and we stopped in a bar called the Howling Dog Saloon. We like to travel off the beaten path a bit, preferring to find local haunts to tourist traps. I guess we stuck out from the usual crowd, which was light at this time of the day. One of the regulars struck up a conversation with us.This guy was a bit of a character. He told us that he really liked the fact that we decided to come to the saloon instead of the place across the street. In his esteemed opinion, this choice made us "travelers not tourists". He had a disdain for tourists, but not for travelers. He ended up reviewing the map with us, showing us where he worked, explaining his very difficult trade, his work schedule, etc. It was quite an interesting evening. Apparently the rest of the regulars decided that we were okay too, and we had conversations with several of them. The clientele consisted of some Alaskan born folks, as well as some people who were searching for something in their life and ended up there. We loved Alaska.
During several trips to other locations, we have found some really nice places to visit, and I'd like to share them with anyone who is interested. That is the reason for this blog. I hope you find some places that you would like to check out after reading about them.