Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center: Portage, Alaska

On the way home from our camping trip to Portage Valley a couple of weeks ago, we stopped into the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Located at mile 79 of the Seward Highway, the AWCC is about 55 minutes outside of Anchorage and is well worth the drive. Opened in 1993, the AWCC is committed to conservation of Alaska's wildlife and educating the thousands of visitors they receive each year.

I hadn't visited the center since my teenage years when I was still living at home, and my have things changed around there! It is such an amazing place to visit, both for adults and for kids of all ages. There is a visitor center with restrooms, a snack bar (well stocked!) and a gift shop.

As for seeing all the animals, there are three different options. You can drive, walk or a combination of both. Personally I would always rather park and walk. That's what we did when we visited, and it worked wonderfully. We brought the stroller which Raina spent most of her time in, and Riggs rode along when he chose to. I can see how it would be nice to drive in inclement weather or if you have someone in your group who can't walk for long distances (I think all the loops combined are about 1.5 miles).

I cannot say enough about the quality of the enclosures, the friendliness of the staff, and the overall experience. We had such a good time, and I could not get over how non-cage like all of the enclosures were. Wide expanses of land have been fenced off for each animal to roam, and the more confining enclosures (for the Lynx and Eagle, for example) were beautifully laid out with plenty of enriching details included to entertain the animals. Each animal had an informational panel (or two or three) and even as a lifelong Alaskan who loves nature and the outdoors, I learned a lot!

Location: 49 miles from Anchorage near Girdwood and Portage
Price: $12.50 per adult; youth (13-18)/seniors/active duty military $9; children 12 & under are free.
Hours: 8am to 8pm every day. Hours change September 17, see their website for more information.

click on photos to see larger versions/slideshow:

Visitor Center with gift shop and cafe at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Grizzly bear putting on a show for the guests during the staff member's presentation at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Wood Bison.
The Alaska Wildlife Conservation is involved in an extensive project to reintroduce Wood Bison into the wild in Alaska. 

Herd of male Elk, some of which will be flown to the island of Akun to provide economic diversity and opportunity for the Alaska Native community there on the island.

Girdwood adventure and an addition to our family

Sunday was a full day. Steve is back to working a ton of hours (a blessing but we miss him!) and Sundays are his only day off again. We had sooo much to do, which included a lot of driving, and I knew it was going to be tricky for the kids. 

We had to drive to Anchorage to drop off a vehicle Steve was selling. Then we were off to Girdwood to look at another vehicle, this time for me. We have the truck but I really miss having a little car to run around in. Plus Steve sold his commuter rig last week and so we needed another vehicle anyway since sharing once isn't the most practical when he's gone working so much, often over an hour away from home. 

While we were in Girdwood we decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine and get the kids out of their carseats for a bit before we had to make the drive home (about two hours after running a few more errands in town). We went up to the Resort and headed out on the cross country ski trails, which are great for walking in the summer. 

Girdwood is such a gorgeous little town, and I love how everything there basically centers around being outside and being active. I also just love tiny towns with character, and Girdwood definitely has a lot of that. It was a nice change of pace after driving through Anchorage earlier. Despite growing up in Anchorage, the older I get the less I enjoy spending time there. It's nice to be able to get shopping done, and to eat at all the amazing restaurants around town too. But it's just so so busy and crowded feeling. Even Palmer seems to be growing so fast, sometimes I just wish for an even slower pace and smaller community than we currently live in.

Anyway, back to Girdwood. It was a beautiful day to visit, and the Resort was bustling with activity from the Fiddlehead Music Festival going on that weekend. We avoided it all and went right out onto the trails, but we weren't in any kind of a hurry. Steve and I both felt so bad for Riggs having to be constantly shushed while we were trying to talk about our game plan for the day, and stuck in the car for hours, basically since first waking up. So we decided to just go at his pace, letting him explore every little detail, no matter how much that meant that we were just standing there waiting for him. 'Slow parenting' has been on my mind a lot lately, I've been trying to be really intentional about following his lead whenever it's feasible to do so, instead of constantly rushing him (here is a great article about it if you're curious).

Steve showed Riggs that when you toss a stick in on one side of the bridge you can run over
to watch it come out the other side. They did this together for nearly half an hour, so much simple, easy fun.

Riggs got knocked down by another dog on the trial (the poor thing didn't want to play with Tutka and was backing away
quickly and bumped right into Riggs) and needed some cuddle time after that. I had only brought the Ergo for Raina so I
just had Riggs sit on my purse and carried him that way. It worked great and I loved the extra snuggle time, which is a pretty
rare thing these days. He was back down and exploring mushrooms within 5 minutes, of course. 

After the walk, we headed home. I got to drive my 'new' car, and Riggs rode along with me. He was so excited to ride in mommy's new car, but then fell asleep about five minutes into the drive and slept all the way to Anchorage and then stayed asleep while Steve ran into a few stores to shop for some work stuff. I'm already loving having a small, economical car to run around in. We still need to dig out our old rocket box and get that put on the roof rack for extra storage, then it will be all set up for skiing this winter too.