the Alcan.

This past weekend we drove up from Seattle to Anchorage in 3 days, camping for free (arriving close to midnight and departing early from great sites, legitimately), and animal spotting. Thank you Q for the tent :)

The green British Columbian forests were a wash in reds, both from wildflowers and from the pine beetles killing trees. The forests of the Yukon came with purple wild flowers, dead spruces with gray-purple hues and a few green ones that looked like some artisan giant had taken fingers dipped in blood and brushed their tops. Sunsets were stunning color symphonies, changing by the second from peach to orange, to fuchsia and then coral. Unfortunately, rain and clouds prevented staring into the heavens above.

The final animal count is: an entire herd of wood bison (like 25 including babies), 2 grizzly bears, 6 black bears (including two cubs who climbed a tree while we watched--the one sibling climbing too far out on the limb, the branch broke and they tumbled 5 feet down to the ground. their mother looked over nonchalantly and went back to eating grass), lots of moose, lots of deer, a bobcat, three marmots, an Arctic ground squirrel, two owls, and millions of mosquitoes who found their death on the hood of the car.