Dall Sheep and Turnagain Arm

I was talking to a friend of mine earlier about different animals that you can hunt in Alaska and I mentioned dall sheep.  Of course, the idea of tracking and killing these animals reminded me of some pictures I caught of a sheep and her lamb, but neglected to post.

These were taken along the Turnagain Arm area, off the Seward Highway, which as one might figure, connects Seward and Anchorage.  I went to Turnagain to do some biking and stopped on the side of the road when I saw these two.

I hiked up a little bit toward them until it seemed like I was going to scare them off.

This is after taking my bike up a hiking trail.  The trail distinctions are not arbitrarily made to inconvenience me, like I assumed.  As it turns out, some of the hiking trails become very difficult to ride.  This is at the midway point on Bird Ridge.  About five minutes after this, some old hippie b-word came by to lecture me about the trail distinctions - I had pretty much figured things out when I almost killed myself.

Bird Creek.

You really only have to travel about 20 minutes outside Anchorage to get to what everybody considers the real Alaska, which is incredible.  In the summer, a '97 Honda Accord travels fine.  And for that matter, you could ride a bike if you had the energy and time (I don't).