Fantasy Caravan Day 35 - part 1 - Anchorage to Seward

On Friday, we drove from Anchorage to Seward -- 

A few miles south of Anchorage, we got our first glimpse of Turnagain Arm.

The railroad was running alongside us on the way.

We stopped at Beluga Point but didn't see any Beluga whales.

According to The Milepost, "The 1964 Good Friday earthquake caused land to sink in the Turnagain Arm area... As a result, many trees had their root systems invated by salt water, as seen by the stands of dead spruce trees along here."

A little sun makes it even more beautiful!

We had decided to stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) on the way. We got there just a few minutes before it opened at 9am which was good since it allowed us to find parking for Gracie so we could explore the center.

The AWCC works with restoration of endangered species and takes in injured or orphaned wildlife.

One of the current projects is restoring the Wood Bison population in Alaska.

These are some of the injured and orphaned animals that have been helped here.

Sometimes some of their animals make it into the movies.

Neither Carl nor I had heard of "Into the Wild" before coming to Alaska, but we've heard about it a few times since we've been here. We looked up the movie and found that we could watch it for free... we got about 20-25 minutes into it and decided that it wasn't a movie that we needed to watch. But some of the animals from AWCC were in it!

One of the first enclosures we saw one moose...

... two moose (red moose, blue moose?).

In one of the barns, there was a Wood Bison Hide (this is one of the species that they are working to re-introduce into Alaska) -- it is HUGE!

Info about the hide

This was a hold-over from COVID distancing -- read the last one!

When we came into the center, they indicated that you shouldn't pet any of the animals, so when I saw "Wildlife Petting Chart", I wondered, "What?!?!?" Then I got to looking at the markings on the animal (this happens to be a musk ox).

I don't think I have ever seen Musk Oxen...

They were smaller than I expected (the one on the right is a calf).

I can't imagine two of these colliding head-to-head!

We had been told by friends who visited the center on Thursday that the bear exhibit was pretty interesting...

Carl with the cut-outs showing relative sizes and shapes of the three bears in Alaska -- Black, Brown (aka Grizzly), and Polar.

Some bear facts:

One of the male Brown Bears was barely (bearly?) visible but then his sister walked up...

She was beautiful....

... unperturbed by the visitors.

Continuing on her way...

Female bear walking by...

We continued on...

Saw some bull elk...

... and some more elk.

Then we saw what was indicated as caribou...

... but these did not have the same kind of antlers as what we had seen in Denali...

... maybe they were younger? We didn't have a chance to ask anyone.

One of the caribou was eating near the fence and I thought that the sound it made while feeding was pretty interesting:

The AWCC is set up so you can either walk through or drive through. The lady at the entry gate recommended walking, and we figured that would be better than trying to navigate Gracie through the facility.

At the far end of the center, it is next to Turnagain Arm.

We had been warned (and seen previous warning signs) about the dangers of walking out on the mud flats -- the tides here are 30-35', and the mud flats can be like quicksand -- meaning that you get stuck, and before help can get to you, you drown in the incoming tide.

Looking across to Turnagain Arm

We were driving down this peninsula...

The 1964 quake caused major damage and impact to this area.

Carl looking out over Turnagain Arm

As we turned back into the center, we saw the pastures of Wood Bison...

... some more Wood Bison.

Handling system for the Wood Bison

Information about the handling system -- note that it is hydraulically operated.

The first groups of Wood Bison have been released and are being monitored in the wild.

Then we saw Sitka Black-tailed deer...

... and some female elk.

Continuing on, we saw a black bear...

He was enjoyable to watch:

Notice the "Roman nose" that is an easy differentiator to the brown bear:

Then on to a porcupine...

I did not think it looked like he had quills...

Walking around:

Adonis the bald eagle

Info about the eagle

Great horned owl

We had been hearing the wolves "singing"...

It was cool to hear them sing:

We spent about 2.5 hours at the AWCC -- we thought that it was somewhat like seeing the animals in a zoo, but understanding how the animals ended up being here was interesting. 

By the time we were ready to leave (11:30ish), the parking lot was packed, and some of our fellow Fantasy RV Caravan travelers were glad to get our parking spot!

We continued on to our campground in Seward, Alaska.