Close Encounters of ….. A Moose Kind

The further north we go, the brighter it is in the evening. Luckily most of the places we stay at have blackout blinds, so we are able to sleep OK. We had a good continental breakfast at the B&B and then set out for Fairbanks. Along the road near the B&B we had seen the 12,400′ Mount Dunn, but every time we saw it, it was shrouded in cloud. This morning it was clear.

Mount Drum

Beyond Glennallen we lost sight of the mountains for a while and drove through heavily wooded areas. As we started to climb up towards 3200′ the scenery changed again, and was predominantly snow covered mountains.

From the Passenger Seat

With the occasional glimpse of the Alaska pipeline.

Alaska Pipeline

For the last few days we have seen a purple covering on the roadside verges, at first glance it looks like heather, but it is not. If anyone can identify it, please do so.

What Is It?

Descending back down, we wet back into forests again, but this was a good thing as Lyn spotted a moose at the side of the road.

Moose

I was surprised at how tame it was. By the time I had stopped the car we were way beyond it, so I did a 180 and took a couple of pictures across the road, then another 180 and pulled up along side it. The moose just carried on as though there was no one there.

We finally pulled into Fairbanks, still with clear blue skies and a temperature of 20C, forecast for tomorrow is 27C. I was a little nervous approaching the hotel as it was the cheapest one of the trip @ $99 per night and it had a couple of not so good reviews, but it was the only one available when I booked. We checked in, and all was good. Even the internet was pretty good (once they reset the WiFi)