June 3

June 3, 2014

We decided to continue on down the road, away from Anchorage.   We drove to Portage which has a Wildlife Conservation Center.  Again we were the only ones there for a while and took the free shuttle around the property with our own personal guide Scott.   We got out and he whistled for “JB” and a huge brown/grizzly bear came out of the trees to us,   He said Grizzly and Brown bears  are basically the same, but Grizzlies are near water and Brown Bears are inland.   They use these animals for commercials or they are being rehabilitated.  Some are too used to humans and would have to be put down so they are brought here to live out a comfortable life. 

 The buffalo are being bred so the heard can be reintroduced into the wild to repopulate.  Buffalo are one species that were once on the extinct list but are now plentiful.  

 After our bus tour, we were allowed to just walk around the park.  All the animals are behind fences.   We saw Wood Bison, bears, Elk, Sika Black-tailed deer, musk-0en, two Lynx, an Owl a bald eagle, moose, caribou reindeer and a porcupine.  It was a really cool place.  

 

 We headed towards Whittier where we had to wait in line to go through a tunnel through a mountain, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel.   This is a one way tunnel, and runs every ½ hour.  It takes about 7- 8 minutes to drive through it.  Sometimes there is a train so both sides have to wait for the train to go through.  Whittier is a small town on a beautiful inlet.

  We had lunch at one of the two places open.  It is a fishing and site seeing town.  

 

 

 We are camping at the Williwaw United States Forestry Service campground at the base of the Middle Glacier.   The trail we took behind our camp site took us on the most fantastic view of the glacier. 

This was our trail and Tom is trying to convince me to go that way???

I had to remind him.....

and the fact no one knew where we were.

We bought fire wood and had a fire.  

Our views during dinner were sweet.

We were warned there was a stray Grizzly in the Park, so watch our food and don’t leave anything outside.   We did take our bear spray on our trail walk but it makes you think twice about walking alone on a trail.   The guy said he usually comes out in the evenings but since it never gets dark here, what the heck does that mean?

 

We are so glad we left Anchorage and were able to experience these wonders these last two days.   We will head back to Anchorage on Wednesday for our last night.  We turn the motor home in Thursday morning and head to the airport.   It has been a wonderful vacation.  I miss my family too.   There is no internet where we are camping Monday and Tuesday, so I will try to Publish this when we get back to Anchorage.