Advertisement
Published: September 10th 2013
Edit Blog Post
image
Polar bear at the Alaska zoo. Showing off for the audience Arrived in Anchorage late last night. Had difficulty finding a free camp in town...we were real tired so we ended up parking next to some parked trucks outside of Sams Club. Our usual "in town" spots all had large signs saying overnight parking not allowed and vehicles would be towed away.
Spent the morning packing our bags for our Canadian flight tomorrow. It's a sad feeling to be leaving this beautiful place but we are also excited about our next destination - Canada.
Visited the Alaska Zoo today. $12 admission per adult and we used our toursaver coupon here. The zoo is close to downtown Anchorage and the exhibits were mostly from North America. The zoo was in a forested area, plenty of shade and room to move for all the captive animals. Our favourite today would have to have been the Polar Bears. There was a male and a female but only the female was active while we were there today. The male polar bear has been brought over from Seaworld Australia in the hope he will mate with the female.
A lot of the animals and birds at the zoo have been rescued due to either
image
Lonesome toadstool being orphaned or injured, therefore most of them will spend the rest of their lives here at the zoo.
Drove out to the Anchorage airport where we visited the Aviation Museum. There were displays relating to the beginning of air travel in Alaska. Admission here was $10 per adult and we used our coupon booklet here.
The displays were interesting but it's only a small place so an hour is plenty of time here. About 2 miles from the airport there is a park called "Earthquake Park" with an easy trail "Tony Knowles Coastal Trail" that borders Anchorage waterfront. Displays along the road explain about the earthquake that hit Anchorage on Good Friday 1964.
Along the trail we came across some fresh bear droppings! We were only 2 miles from the international airport. Just a reminder that wildlife can be anywhere!
This earthquake destroyed or severely restricted all forms of communication, utilities and transportation of a large part of SouthCentral Alaska. It also caused great damage to the natural environment of the State.
Anchorage is a large city although it is not the capital of the state. The capital of Alaska is Juneau. On Anchorages
image
Black bear doorstep is the magnificent wilderness Chugach National Park which encompasses 1/2 million acres of massive mountains and glaciers, streams and spectacular alpine scenery. The city has 180 parks and 120 miles of paved bike trails.
Anchorage receives a moderate amount of precipitation in the form of rain and snow - 15 inches per year. The area is protected by mountains and does not have extreme temperatures - 10-20 degrees F in winter and summer temperatures are between 50-60 degrees F. Because off its northern situation Anchorage has an extreme pattern of light and dark throughout the year.
At summer solstice the sun sets at 11.30pm and dips below the horizon to provide a summer twilight before rising again at 4.30am. In December the situation is reversed - the sun rises at 10.30am and sets at 3.30pm and rises only 20 degrees above the horizon.
We spent the evening sitting in a downtown McDonalds updating our photos and blogs.
Parked the RV outside Maccas for the night..it was a close and convenient position for dropping off the RV to the depot tomorrow.
We fly out to Vancouver at 3pm Tuesday afternoon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kay
non-member comment
Only you guys would take pictures of bear droppings Oh my god you two !!