After traveling on the Top of the World Highway, we were getting pretty close to the border. We had been on the road one day shy of two weeks, and we were thrilled to finally reach Alaska. We arrived at the big bad border patrol and were the only vehicle in sight. The crossing entailed a little log hut with a big man inside. Next to the hut was a log house. It had a sign that read, "Poker Creek, Population: 3." This was his house. He was a third of the town and proud of it. Our first impression of Alaska was grand; people just lived in the middle of nowhere and created their own village. How neat.
We took a ton of pictures by the, “Welcome to Alaska” sign and walked out into a big valley behind it. It was crowded with a herd of caribou. We entered Alaska and BAM, wildlife. We stood there and watched them for awhile. We were just in awe that we actually made it, almost two weeks later, and suddenly we were surrounded by wildlife. It was a happy moment.
The caribou are in the middle, toward the bottom of the first hill.
Eventually we kept driving and followed the Taylor Highway. We were looking for a place to camp in the area and just taking in the views. We were also on the lookout for more animals. Adam is a pretty good wildlife spotter and has these eagle eyes that spot things miles before I do. I knew it was time to prove myself as a passenger spotter and started hyper focusing out the window. I had my hat pressed as closely as it would go and I was staring, like a hardcore creep, and I wasn’t about to lay off until I spotted a moose climbing a bear or something just as worthwhile.
“MOOSE!” Adam shouted pointing directly in front of us. He won, again.
We slowed down and tried to take some pictures of a moose, 50 yards in front of us, with her baby calf. They quickly ran off into the brush.
“So, what aren’t you good at again?” I asked.
He laughed. Like this was so comical. “I’m not good at spotting grizzly bears,” he said, as he was pointing straight forward at the hill in front of us. “See, there’s one,” he said, pointing at the empty road.
And then we drove over the hill and as the road appeared below us, Adam was pointing DIRECTLY at a huge grizzly bear. He spotted the bear before the bear existed. I knew my wildlife spotting days would never see their full potential.
We stopped immediately and pulled next to the brush. The bear had wandered off the road, and was now on an open trail next to the road. Down the trail there were TWO grizzly bears staring at us. We took as many pictures as we could and realized we had stopped in a horrible spot on the road and the front grizzly was starting to look at us aggressively, as he hunched down with his ears up, facing us straight on. They were curious, but we didn’t need to stick around to see why.
Don't these pictures look fake?! They are pretty zoomed in from my point and shoot camera, so they look a little fuzzy... possiby also from terror shakes on the photographer's end.
Caribou, moose, bears! Ah. We made it.
We arrived at a campground called West Fork and made a fire. It was one of our first fires in awhile since they had mostly been banned in Canada. We sat down and opened a bottle of wine from Adam’s friends: Austin, Amber, Brad and Brenda. They had labeled it, “Don’t open until Alaska!” and we had kept it carefully packed until this moment. It was the perfect way to celebrate (thanks guys!).
The excitement!