Alaska Zoo & Point Woronzof to see Mt. McKinley

After lunch we drove down to the Alaska Zoo. We used our Garmin GPS and the directions indicated to drive south on Elmore Road which was a dead end. We quickly turned around and took a different road to get to the Zoo. There was a car and a pickup truck driving ahead of us on Elmore Road and they had to stop & turn around – apparently their GPSs gave them the wrong directions, also.

We arrived at the Zoo a little after 1:00 and paid $9 each (senior discount) admittance.

Our first stop was at the polar bear exhibit. There were 2 polar bears – 1 was taking a nap and the other one was playing with a large black plastic tube in the water. It really put on quite a show and it was hard to leave and explore the rest of the zoo.

From Alaska Zoo

At each of the different animal enclosures there was a sign giving information about each animal and there was another sign giving the history of the specific animals in the enclosures. A lot of the animals in the zoo were either orphans or injured animals who could no longer survive in the wild. One example was this snowy owl who could no longer fly.

From Alaska Zoo

Today there was an organization having a picnic for families.

From Alaska Zoo

We saw a herd of caribou, actually a reindeer herd since reindeer are the domesticated species of caribou.

From Alaska Zoo

We got to see a couple of Dall Sheep up close since most of the ones we've seen are so high up on the mountains that they are large white specks.

From Alaska Zoo

We stopped at the grey wolf enclosure and got to hear one bark and howl - Mike was taking a video of the wolf just as he started barking - great timing!

From Alaska Zoo

We saw brown bears including this one taking a dip in his water trough

From Alaska Zoo

and a couple of black bears that had been orphaned.

From Alaska Zoo

We stopped back by the polar bears before we left the zoo, but both of them were having their after lunch naps. We enjoyed our visit to the Zoo and liked the signs giving the history of each animal. We made a mental note to visit the next zoo in the early morning and not at the animals' lunchtime, since the animals all seemed to take naps after lunch.

After leaving the Alaska Zoo we drove out to Point Woronzof next to the airport to see Mt. McKinley. I had previously located a webcam that is on a building in Anchorage that was pointed toward Mt. McKinley and I checked it before we left for the Zoo. The weather had cleared up enough today that Mt. McKinley was visible.

When we got out to Point Woronzof Mt. McKinley was visible, but it was still somewhat hazy so the mountain wasn't as clear as we had hoped.

From Anchorage

We saw this RV parked at Point Woronzof and Mike talked with the owner who is taking a year to tour the United States and Canada. He was from the Netherlands and had had the RV shipped from Hamburg, Germany to Baltimore.

From Anchorage

We were right under the flight path for planes taking off from the airport and got some great photos.

From Anchorage