Day 15: Reindeer Buttes

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Everyone slept in good Monday. Pops made up some French toast for breakfast and then we loaded up the truck with our boots and jackets and drove about an hour north of anchorage to a reindeer farm. We got our tickets and the big kids road a pony while we waited for our tour.

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Then we went out on a deck with our group and a guide taught us about reindeer/caribou (same thing but reindeer live on a farm) while we looked out at them and passed around a big set of antlers.

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Reindeer are pretty unique and do a lot of cool things. The main message of the talk was not to touch the antlers. This was really hard as the antlers looked really fun to touch.

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They let us loose in the pens with cups of food and the reindeer all came to visit. IMG_2416

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They were eager for the food but really not rough and none of our cups got knocked away from the kids or anything. They have no teeth in the front on the bottom so it seemed pretty safe to feed them and felt pretty funny.

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Once all 6 of our cups of food were gone we left the reindeer area and picked some grass then we went over to the elk and fed them some grass.

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They have teeth in the front and are bigger and rougher so we were not able to go into the pen with them.

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The kids picked a lot of grass and fed it to them. Eventually we moved on. We didn’t go anywhere near the bison.

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But we did touch some bunnies.

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We washed up and had a little rice crispy break.

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and then Pumpkin finished up her pony ride.

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We were getting hungry so we left the ram and drove into town. There were 2 places to eat about 1/2 mile apart, a pizza place in a convenience store and a cafe in a gas station. We tried out the cafe and it was good. We drove back toward the farm but turned the other way and parked at a trail head. We grabbed a few things and then started hiking. The trail was strait up a dusty rail.

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There were no switchbacks and it was tough going so we took some breaks and took our time.

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In no time we got high enough to see over the trees.

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We were awarded with great views right away

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but we could always see another little rise that would give us a view of a little more so we hiked on.

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and saw more.

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The kids were a bit grumbly about the hike at first but pretty soon they started having fun.

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And they started appreciating the views too.

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We could even see the reindeer.

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We went up to a few more mini peaks to look around and take pictures.

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We had a little snack.

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Then climbed our way down.

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Going down went really quick. It was a tough hike and all the girls fell asleep as we drove back to Pop’s house.

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It was a bit windy and very dusty on the trail and we had a lot of dirt to wash off.

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Pops had some mystery game burger that we decided to call elk and make into cheeseburgers for dinner.

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After dinner and baths we got the kids to bed and then Heath and I went for a bike ride.

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We rode along side streets near the coast and poked through the houses for views in a few spots.

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Then we went home and got cleaned up and in bed.

 

 

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