We left the house at 7:00 am to give ourselves enough daylight to view the scenery and hike to the cabin. Driving through town we came upon a small dog wandering around the highway. Casey, being the good guy that he is, pulled the car over and corralled the lost pup into the back of the CRV with Reef. Both dogs got along just fine, however shortly after setting off to find an animal shelter we noticed a very sour pee smell emanating from the back. Great, she peed all over Reef's blankets. Eventually we got a hold of someone willing to take the dog off our hands and strangely enough we couldn't find a drop of urine on any of the bedding. We found this puzzling but fortunate.
Only an hour behind schedule we set off down the Richardson Highway to Delta Junction. The weather was unseasonably warm, so warm that it RAINED. Water should be frozen this time of year. There was virtually no snow on the ground. At Delta Junction the sun was finally up and we continued down the Richardson Highway towards the Alaska Range. Majestic blue mountains outlined in snow began towering all around us. We came across a field that looked promising for wildlife sightings and sure enough, we spotted a small group of grazing caribou.
There are roughly 800,000 caribou in 32 distinct herds which graze in mountainous regions and tundra year-round throughout Alaska. They flee into cool windy climates in high mountains and coasts during the summer to escape the swarms of biting insects, grazing mostly on willow leaves and mushrooms, and migrate back down into the tundra during the winter to feast on lichen. Each heard has separate calving grounds they return to year after year, however herds will mix during the winter season. The dozen or so caribou we spotted on our drive were a subset of the Delta Herd, which is estimated to contain roughly 3,000 animals.
Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-1600 f/5.6 @ 1/500 sec
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