Anchorage

A few years later, I was back in Alaska. This time, I wanted to try somewhere different, though I could no longer remember where I had gone on the previous trip.

The highlight of this visit turned out to be the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage. We had gone simply to fill some time, expecting an ordinary zoo. It ended up giving us quite a few surprises.

First, we saw plenty of wolves.

The thing about wolves is that once one starts howling, the rest join in. So we gave our best wolf impressions, over and over, until we set the real wolves off. Once they got going, there was no stopping them. A whole pack howling together was quite a spectacle.

We also saw two Siberian tigers.

And a polar bear roaming around its enclosure.

Not bad at all. We left thoroughly satisfied.

After many years, I was back in Anchorage.

The main event on my previous visit had been the Alaska Zoo. This time, we had also booked a trip to Knik Glacier, adding something new to the Anchorage itinerary.

Speaking of the Alaska Zoo—we went back there too. Apparently, the experience can vary considerably. I wondered whether funding had become a problem between visits, because it felt like a substantial step down. Or perhaps we simply caught it on an unlucky day.

My first visit had been quite something. There was a whole pack of wolves, and I even managed to set off a full chorus by imitating their howls.

This time, though, where were the wolves?

We walked all around the zoo, eagerly looking for that enclosure, and never found it. Not a single wolf in sight. That was disappointing.

On the previous visit, I had also seen a tiger searching for food in the snow. Where was my tiger?

The polar bear behind the glass did little to improve matters. When I was there last time, it had been clambering all over the place. This time, it lay flat on the ground, seemingly without the slightest interest in moving. Perhaps it was simply having a lazy day. But with the wolves and tiger missing from our visit, and the bear’s enthusiasm apparently missing too, I began to wonder what was going on.

Would I recommend the zoo now? Based on this visit, no. It felt as though we had barely seen anything. A shame.

Then came our trip to Knik Glacier. Northeast of Anchorage in the Chugach Mountains, it is one of the large glaciers in the area that are relatively accessible by helicopter tour. We flew straight into the glacier area, landed on the ice, and got out to explore. An excellent way to save time. Money, considerably less so: it was expensive.

But the experience was terrific. Once again, spending enough money did seem to get us very good service.

There were several ice caves nearby, and the ice underfoot was ridiculously slippery.

Time to look inside.

After about half an hour exploring the area, we climbed back into the helicopter and flew back.

That wrapped up our brief Anchorage visit. Next was Fairbanks, where we hoped to see the northern lights.