Alaska Wildfie Conservation Center

Today was an amazing day. I can't even begin to describe the things I've seen. We drove down to the town of Girdwood (about 45 minutes out of Anchorage). Lori has a year long membership to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It's a 200 acre home to over 100 animals (or so the signs say). The drive was incredible. The pictures speak volumes more then I ever could. I wish my mind had a USB port so I could download and preserve everything I saw today. Alaska is certainly the most unique place I have ever visited.

The Drive to Portage

Go Bulls!

Breathtaking

A "Ghost Forest"

 Interesting fact, in 1964 there was a massive earthquake in Alaska. It was the third biggest earthquake in recorded history and the biggest earthquake in North America. It completely destroyed the town of Portage (it was never rebuilt). In Portage the ground dropped ten feet, which caused salt water to rush in. This killed the trees, but at the same time preserved them, leaving behind "forests" of dead trees, aptly named ghost forests.

Wood Bison are only found in Alaska and Canada. They are very different from your typical plains bison.

My winter gear. It was 20 degrees outside, but I was toasty warm!

We also drove down to Portage lake. You can see glaciers there. Glaciers are hard to distinguish from the mountains in the winter, as everything is covered in snow. But, if you look closely you can see the clear blue ice of the glaciers in the hollows between mountain peaks.

For some size perspective: that's me sitting on the rocks.

The sunset reflecting on the mountains on the drive home.