Look! A moose!

I saw my first moose on June 17th!  Awesome.  We were on a charter (aka a bus with a potty) from Anchorage to Denali National Park.  Someone spotted the moose off the road to the right.

and across the road I saw a moose crossing sign.  Awesome.

We drove through Wasilla, and the driver pointed out Sarah Palin's infamous fence.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.  Three times we were through or in Wasilla, and no picture.  Disappointment.

We stopped at a Princess Resort to use the potty* and buy & send a couple of moose postcards.  It was very nice out.

That's right.  9:51 AM on June 17th, and it was 60 degrees out.  Oh, it was so nice, and some weather I wouldn't mind having back now that we're in the 90s (or hotter) most days...
*Public Service Announcement:  If you stay at a hotel/resort affiliated with a cruise line, be prepared to have your hotel treated like a waiting room and/or a rest stop.

Back on the road to Denali, and we saw some cars pulled off to the side of the road.  A good rule of thumb for people travelling in Alaska:  if you see cars pulled off to the side of the road, you should pull off too.  It's very possible they see wildlife, and even if you don't necessarily want to take a ton of pictures of it using your iPad (wow, we saw that A LOT), you don't want to risk the animal crossing the road in front of you.
Here's what the cars saw and we stopped for:

This reminded me of the show Northern Exposure.

Once the moose (that's 2 moose - Jeff hates it when I say meese, but it's fun to get a rise out of him!) crossed the road, a lot more vehicles stopped to take pictures.  And that bull moose just hammed it up.  I think that he was a model, paid by the State of Alaska Board of Tourism to give something for us tourists to look at and take a bunch of pictures of.  Unfortunately, the sun was coming in the windows facing the moose, and I could not figure out the best way to photograph through glass.  I really should have asked the driver if I could get off the bus to photograph...

The trip by charter from Anchorage to Denali took a total of about 4 hours.  It would have been much quicker if we had driven.  But it was part of the Gray Line tour, so that's how we got there.  I also don't know how much the ride cost.  But we did meet this really nice guy on his way to see his girlfriend who works for the park service.  He's either a geologist or still in school for advanced degrees in geology - I don't recall - and he was sharing so many interesting facts about how the mountains were made (multiple plates, not just 2), all the different kinds of rock making the different mountains (mountains of different colors - it was really cool), and some other fun facts about the park.  Hey Ash - thanks for making the trip a fun one!

Next up - driving in the park to our lodge!

See the full itinerary here...