Wild Kingdom - really!

As we drive into Wrangell-St Elias National Park, the weather is gray and we are unsure what to expect. It is the largest of all the National Parks, but is only accessed by two long dirt roads (40 miles or 60 miles). Since the clouds are low, I'm not optimistic that we'll see much of the park's beauty - the amazing snowcapped volcanic mountains. I remember that this park is supposed to have more wild animals than any other, and I remind Eileen that we'll have to keep our eyes open for them as we drive so at least we'll see something. Less than a minute farther down this lonely bumpy road, something amazing happened - suddenly a spinning mass of animals crosses the road right in front of us. It is so unexpected it takes a moment to decypher what we're looking at: A pack of wolves is taking down a moose and her calf as they stumble across the road. It's not a chase at this point - the wolves appear patient and calculating as they jog alongside, jumping up to bite at opportunistic times. Quickly they are into the woods again and we lose sight of them. We roll the windows down to listen, and we hear this horrible grunting and snorting sounds coming from the distraught moose from just inside the forest a few yards farther down the road. We reposition the van and stand up on top of it (8 feet up) for a better look. We can only partly see glimpses thru the trees, but they are less tha 50 feet from us. Branches are snapping and the trees are bending catastrophically as the group bashes into them haphazardly in the struggle. We can see at this point that the mother moose is not being attacked - it is just the calf they are nipping at, and the mother is helplessly trying to establish a perimemter around it. It is all so close and life and death real I have the unfocused feeling I should do something to help, but of course that doesn't make any sense. After only a few brief moments the battle appears over, as the moose quiets her grunting to just heavy breathing, steps away a few feet, and then walks away (grunting occasionally - in grief I guess). Fortunately, we cannot actually see the downed calf thru the trees, but the sounds are grotesque - I can only describe it as a splashing sound :-( I am desperate to go see, but getting close to the wolf pack with a fresh kill probably isn't a good idea, so when the noises stop we finally continue on our journey - moved and a little stunned by the experience.

And now we are enjoying the stunning setting of Valdez - Eileen and I agree that it is the most beautiful city we have seen so far - and the others are amazing. We have a campsite right on the water, with a 359 degree panorama of glaciated mountains! We'll kayak, hike, and bike in the area for awhile before heading toward Anchorage.

It struck me this afternoon, that we are still far from the halfway point of the drive - kind of scary to think that each hour we drive adds another hour on the way back - we are FAR from home and getting farther!

Okay, so here's our tally so far:

• 3700 miles (85 hours) of driving
• 42 days (38 sleeping in the van)
• 4 days of rain
• 7 national parks
• >1000 photographs
• 1 laptop died (2nd one still good so far - we brought two!)
• 1 broken hiking pole
• 1/2" of hair growth
• Grizzly, Black Bear, Moose, Beaver, Foxes, Wolves, Bald Eagles, Seals, Humpback Whales, Porpoises, Salmon, Sea Otters, Dahl mountain sheep.