Busy Week

Whew, for having nothing on my calendar the days seemed to pass at record pace. Here it is October already.

We managed to have some pretty nice weather most of last week; enough to make a family field trip to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. About 50 miles south of Anchorage, and just at the end of Turnagain Arm, the Center is a pretty nice place to view the vast majority of Alaskan animals in their natural habitats.

Most of the animals that come to AWCC have been rescued, with the exception of the Wood Bison herd that is part of a nation-wide revitalization project. That herd is the only viable one known in the U.S. and has grown exponentially in the past few years. Other animals we saw on our little trek through the area were brown bears, black bears, elk (what a nice treat for we NW natives), deer, porcupines, and a band of particularly interesting moose, who enjoyed meeting us up close and personal.

Our Bear had a ball seeing the animals he has been taught to avoid (i.e. moose and bears) at his level. We even got to see feeding time of the bears, when they received a lovely moose road-kill carcass.

The center is open year round; each season presents its own interesting behavior of animals. It was lovely to hear elk bugle as they tried to round up the cows, view the porcupines making a nest for their upcoming winter's nap.

Still no snow, but by all accounts, the animals seem to be preparing for it, as are we. Winter can't be far behind...