Moose love Anchorage and you will too

    Anchorage is awesome.
    The Alaskan scenery is spectacular, there's a lot to do that's easy to get to, the people are friendly, and all motorists in Anchorage drive the speed limit or slower in fear of rounding a corner and running into a moose.
    And that's why I am back for the seventh summer in the last eight: to look for and photograph moose.
    According to the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department, 1,400 moose live within the city limits. Also 254,000 people, 42 percent of the state's population. Moose are everywhere: along the outstanding 100-mile network of paved trails that fitness-obsessed residents use for hiking, biking and running; in residential backyards; throughout the municipality's 228 parks; and in the woodlands that surround the city, especially along the unbelievably scenic Tony Knowles Coastal Trail that overlooks the Cook Inlet, the big body of water that cradles Anchorage.
    Unfortunately, bear live in Anchorage, too. During our stay at lodgings on O'Malley Road, a bear killed two baby moose in a residential back yard just four blocks from us. "Bear Warning" signs were posted in areas where the bear was observed, but that didn't seem to stop locals from walking, running or biking the trails. Many exercise enthusiasts wear bells attached to their wrists or ankles to (hopefully) scare away the bear.
    With all respect to the many readers who cruise the Inland Passage and visit Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau and Skagaway, you should consider making Anchorage your base and do what you want when you want.
    After you rent a car and settle in, the first thing to see in Anchorage is all of Anchorage at once from a mountain-side observation point. Drive to the Flattop Mountain observation area at the top of Toilsome Hill Road for a spectacular panoramic view of Anchorage and the Cook Inlet. Take Minnesota Road — a main route you should get to know — until it turns into O'Malley. Follow O'Malley to Upper Huffman Road and watch for the signs to Flattop Mountain.
    There, walk up the boardwalk steps to the observation area. Below you lies Anchorage, settled in 1924 by rough-and-tumble miners who wanted to call it Alaska City. But the U.S. Post Office insisted that all mail to the outpost be addressed to the settlement that had become the "anchor" for all trade and travel in the state: Anchorage.
    Looking down, you can see that the city is cradled by two bodies of water. They are arms of the Cook Inlet, which feeds into the Gulf of Alaska, which feeds into the Pacific Ocean. To your right is Knik Arm and to the left is Turnagain Arm.
    Turnagain Arm — named because Capt. Cook, looking for a passage to Asia, sailed down it but turned around. Thinking he could go further, he tried again, but saw it was a dead end and had to "turn again" — runs parallel to the Alaska Highway No. 1, the New Seward Highway, one of the most beautiful drives in the United States. White Dall sheep climb steep cliffs on one side and whales appear and disappear on the other.
    From the observation point you can easily see Anchorage International Airport, where you landed. Jumbo jets from Asia and smaller commercial planes from the mainland are continually touching down and lifting off. To the north, you can see the smaller, faster military fighters take off from Elmendorf Air Force Base.
    Most planes in the air, however, are the single-engine, pontooned aircraft landing on Lake Hood, right next to AIA. It's the busiest amphibian-plane airport in the world.
    Surrounding Lake Hood are scores of air taxi companies that fly backpackers, campers, fishers, hunters and other adventurers into the back country, known as "the bush."
    There are a variety of flightseeing destinations: wild animal viewing, Mt. McKinley, glacier landings in the Chugach Mountains and trips to the bush country where many of the flightseeing companies maintain riverside and mountain-view cabins.
    A fun and inexpensive thing to do is to park in the many air taxi company parking lots and watch the small planes take off and land on the water.
    Also in plain sight from the observation point are the tall buildings of downtown. Located there are the visitors' center, the large hotels, numerous gift shops, excellent restaurants, museums, and a performing arts center.
    Find Elmendorf AFB again and run your eye to the right, about 50 miles north. You're following the six-lane Glenn Highway, which goes to Eagle Pass and the Eagle Pass Nature Center.
    Looming over all of this, yet 180 miles away, is Mt. McKinley in Denali State Park.
    The weather in Alaska changes frequently. When it's sunny, it's spectacular. When it rains, there are still plenty of interesting things to do and learn.
    Such as that I never knew American military troops landed on American soil to retake it from the Japanese.
    Looking for inexpensive and indoor things to do as rain fell on June 8, I discovered the series of free videos presented daily at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, across the street from the Alaska Visitors Center log cabin at 4th Avenue and F Street in easy-to-get-around downtown Anchorage.
    One of the videos, "Alaska at War," is about the Japanese occupying two islands in the Aleutian Island chain in southwest Alaska. After bombing Dutch Harbor, the Japanese, in what military historians believe was a strategy to divert American attention from the war in the South Pacific, occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska.
    On May 11, 1943, American troops landed on Attu, the first American liberation of Japanese-seized American territory in the Pacific War. Except for 28 Japanese taken prisoner, all 2,350 Japanese soldiers on Attu died, either by combat or suicide.
    The Alaska Public Lands Information Center is an interesting option when rain falls. So, too, is the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center. Also located downtown, it is currently undergoing an expansion that will double its size. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2010.
    The second-floor gallery includes displays about the history of Alaska's various native peoples. Also, an entire section is devoted to the Alaska pipeline, with an authentic piece of the huge tube complete with a "pig" that scurries along the inner walls, its multiple feet cleaning the buildup of residue.
    The first-floor gallery features a collection of works by Sydney M. Laurence, considered by many the foremost painter of Alaska, especially his captivating scenes of Mt. McKinley.
    If you stay through meal time, and you should, the Gallery Cafe is open during museum hours and offers a unique and delightful lunch menu.
    Another great rainy-day activity is visiting the numerous souvenir shops along the four-block stretch of 4th Avenue between G and C streets, and the 5th Avenue Mall, a four-story potpourri of shops attached to JCPenney. The idea is to find what you want to take home, then drive to
one of the two Anchorage Wal-Marts and buy it there.
    The best gift shops along 4th Street are Cabin Fever, Grizzly's Gifts, Once in a Blue Moose, Polar Bear Gifts, the Rusty Harpoon and Trapper Jack's Trading Post. In the 5th Street Mall is the Alaska Wild Berry Products store, but you'll want to visit their huge main store off of International Airport Road between the old and new Seward highways, home to the world's largest indoor waterfall — of chocolate. Over on 5th Street, a good supply of T-shirts is at Moose Creek.
    To understand Alaska history and culture, there are two places you must visit: the aforementioned Anchorage Museum, and the 26-acre Alaska Native Heritage Center, located 10 minutes from downtown, north on the Glenn Highway. What a wonderful place.
    The Center celebrates the diverse languages and traditions of the five cultures who were the first Alaskans. You enter via a 26,000-square-foot Welcome House that includes a circular gathering place for storytelling, a theater, and a hall of culture that has displays from each of the state's geographical regions.
    Outside, surrounding a two-acre lake, are five traditional villages representing the state's five Native cultures. At each village, you're greeted by a Native Alaskan who is from, or a descendant of someone from, that particular culture. The village includes an authentic village house, some above ground, and others, such as in the severe-weather and frozen tundra of the Aleutian Island chain, below ground.
    We Texans, understandably, think of Native Americans in terms of Cherokee or Navajo. We never think of the Native Alaskans, hunters too, but who, instead of riding horses to chase buffalo, paddled kayaks to pursue whales and sea lions and packed up their villages to follow herds of caribou and elk. They were, and are, unbelievably rugged people. Those in the Aleutian Island chain, were, once upon a time, enslaved by Russians.
    Be sure and  stop at the Anchorage Visitors Center on 4th Street. The attendants are extremely friendly and helpful. One wall features the names of just about every attraction in the state. By using the free phones and the attraction's code number, you can call directly to make reservations or get more information. The center has every brochure you'll need.
    Anchorage is an excellent home base for many day trips. Here are a few of my favorites:
    • Up at dawn and a short drive to Kincade Park, located on Campbell Point and the western end of the 11-mile Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. As the sun slowly rises, so do the moose. Baby moose are born between mid-May and mid-June, so my June 5-10 visit resulted in some good photos of mommy and her babies.
    After breakfast at the great Downtown Deli, across the street from the visitor's center, or Snow City Cafe, just four blocks west, it's off to four sites within 50 miles southeast of town along the Turnagain Arm: Crow Creek Mine, the Alaska Big Game Conservation Center, Portage Glacier and the still-new Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel to Whittier. It just might be the most spectacular drive in the United States.
    The Seward Highway to Portage is a sometimes four-lane, paved highway that looks like I-35, except there's the Turnagain Arm on the right, the steep cliffs of the Chugach Mountains on the left and snow-capped mountains straight ahead.
    Along the way, signs advise that a five-vehicle delay is illegal, alerting drivers slowed by the captivating scenery to pull over and let others pass. By law, all cars must travel with lights on at all times so drivers, looking everywhere but straight ahead, can be alerted to oncoming traffic.
    Depending on the time of year, there are whales to watch in the water and Dall sheep climbing the steep cliffs. The turn-off to the mine is first, but pass by it for now for more time around the Portage Glacier area.
    Along the way is Girdwood, a great place to eat. Thirty miles past Girdwood is the turnoff to Portage. Just before the turnoff is Alaska Big Game Conservation Center, a preserve for bear, deer, moose and other large animals that have been injured and are being rehabilitated. One moose, Seymour, has become the mascot of the Anchorage Visitors and Convention Bureau and is so accustomed to people that he permits visitors to feed him bananas.
    At Portage, at the end of the Turnagain Arm, you can take a $25 boat to Portage Glacier, the most visited spot in Alaska. The glacier is only three miles away, but it's behind a mountain and the only way to see it is by boat. When pieces of the glacier break off, called calving, they float to the visitors center for great photo opportunities.
    One of the best gift shops is at Portage. It's a little more expensive than gift shops in Anchorage, but the quality is better and the merchandise more unique.
    Also at Portage, adjacent to the gift shop parking lot, is the Begich Boggs Visitor Center and the entrance to the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, 2.5 miles of single-lane road under the mountain to Whittier.
    The roundtrip toll for passenger cars is $12. Motorized vehicles share the roadbed with the Alaska Railroad, which, obviously, has priority as to when it goes through. For the most part, the tunnel schedule is from the Portage side (called Bear Valley) on the half hour and from Whittier on the hour.
    Unless you want to rent a commercial fishing or sight-seeing boat, there's not much to see in Whittier, established by the US Army during World War II as "the secret port."
    Following the war, the Army built two large buildings that remain as landmarks. One, the 14-story Begich Towers, is a condominium that houses over half of the town's population. The other is abandoned.
    As you leave Portage heading for the Seward Highway, on your right is Moose Flats. Drive in, get out and walk along the trail. You just may be the only person in that part of America. Absolutely awesome.
      Back at the New Seward Highway, you'll see the Big Game Conservation Center, the state's only drive-through wild animal park. It seems incongruent to pay to see wild life in Alaska, but it may be your best chance to see them from the safety of your car.
    On the return to Anchorage, stop at the Crow Creek Mine to pan for gold at the site of an 1888 gold strike where eight of the original buildings still stand.
    It's been a day, but there's still time to head back to the city to watch the sun go down, sort of. Take any main north-south street — New Seward Highway, C Street, Minnesota — to Northern Lights Boulevard. Turn left and stop at the parking lots at Earthquake Park or, better yet, a little further down the road at Point Woronzof. There, you can watch the sun set and commercial aircraft from all over the world as they land.
    The only problem is that sunset isn't until about midnight. The sun stays in the sky so long during the summer that the last tee time at Anchorage Municipal Golf Course is 8 p.m. for 18 holes, 10 p.m. for nine holes.
    Be sure to visit Earthquake Park, which commemorates the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.
    On Good Friday 43 years ago, a quake that registered 9.2 on the Richter Scale destroyed most of downtown Anchorage. Buildings and streets dropped between 10 and 30 feet. Before the quake, the area that is now the park was four times its size, but fell into the inlet. Now, joggers, inline skaters, mothers pushing strollers, hand-in-hand amblers, and moose share the trail and the view.
    • The most spectacular and easy day trip is the little-more-than-two-hours, 125-mile drive to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, past waterfalls, large lakes and larger mountains. Some cruise ships dock at Seward, next to the multitude of tour boats and pleasure craft. It's a quaint sea town that's easy to walk around.
    Just outside Seward is the eight-mile drive to Exit Glacier, where park rangers explain about the interesting and constant receding of the glacier. From the parking lot, it's a half-mile walk to the base of the glacier, or a four-mile hike to an overview of the Harding Ice Field. Seward is an excellent day trip.
    • Another interesting and scenic city on the Kenai Peninsula is Homer, the halibut fishing capital of the world. It's only 110 miles from Anchorage if you're a crow, but 233 miles by highway. The drive takes four to five hours depending on how many times you stop to stare in astonishment at — and photograph — the scenery along the Turnagain Arm.
    The highway to Homer goes through spruce forests that hide the distant scenery. An unexpected surprise is Soldotna, a bustling burg of unique shops and restaurants. Be sure to stop at The Moose is Loose bakery.
    Soon, glimpses of distant mountains and blue water appear through the forest and the highway emerges from the trees to overlook the Cook Inlet on the right and, in front of you, way down below, Homer and the Kachemak Bay.
    It is breathtakingly beautiful.
    • Fifty miles north on the Glenn Highway to Eagle River and the Eagle River Nature Preserve. It costs $5 to park at the all-volunteer nature center.
    There are three wood chip-base hiking trails to choose from: a two mile loop, a five mile loop and an eight mile loop.
    Then it was back to the city to look for moose. Two favorite moose hangouts are along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail just past Earthquake Park, and in and around Kincaid Park on Point Campbell at the end of Raspberry Street, off Minnesota Avenue, a major thoroughfare that turns into O'Malley, where we stayed.
    Also in Anchorage, find time to explore the campus of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and its next-door neighbor, Alaska Pacific University. Both campuses are clean, spacious, and, as you can imagine, beautifully landscaped. Near the universities is the Alaska Botanical Garden.
    Alaska time is three hours earlier than Texas, something to remember when phoning home around 7 p.m. only to be rudely reminded that it's 10 p.m. in Texas.
    If you're going to Anchorage, check out the excellent Web site of the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau, www.anchorage.net.
    You can visit the outstanding Web site for The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center at www.anchoragemuseum.org. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. (and until 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). Admission is $6.50 for adults and $6 for those over age 65.
    The Alaska Native Heritage Center Web site is www.alaksanative.net. It's open daily from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Summer admission, May 12-Sept. 30, is $19.95 for adults and $14.95 for children age 7-16. Wintertime admission is $7 for adults and $4 for youth.
    Airlines serving Anchorage from DFW include American, Alaska, Frontier, U.S. Airways and United.