Touring Alaska’s National Parks and Preserves: Chocolate Mousse (Moose) Pie

On this, my third trip to Alaska, I spent most of my time enjoying Alaska’s Parks and Preserves. Pie Pal Linda and I started our journey in Denali National Park and Preserve, where our guide gave us an inspiring tour of the vast ecosystem: a place where humans, animals, rocks, soil, and plants can enjoy their diversity in harmony. From there we traveled to the Kenai Fjords National Park and Resurrection Bay where we got up close to glaciers; orca, beluga, and humpback whales; sea otters; jellyfish; and sea lions as we enjoyed the serenity of the bay.

People: Alaska’s beauty and diversity are the result of visionary leaders such as conservationists Charles Sheldon, Harry Karstens, and Adolph Murie who advocated for protecting the land and seas for nature and government leaders such as William Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State, and Wally Hickel Governor of Alaska and Secretary of the Interior, who acquired millions of acres to protect wildlife and establish national parks. Today, on their behalf, the rangers and guides invite all visitors to continue to be stewards of these national treasures.

Places: We spent most of our time in Denali (the name, from the Athabaskans who were the first inhabitants of the area, means “the high one”) which was founded in 1917, and at 20,310 feet is the tallest point in North America. The National Park Service manages the six million acres here. We saw bears, squirrels, moose, caribou, eagles, Dall sheep, and many varieties of migratory birds, as well as glaciers and large areas of permafrost. Denali is just 200 miles below the Arctic Circle and is the coldest mountain in the world.

The first question friends and family asked on our return to Indiana was did you see Denali? (meaning the mountain.) Yes, we did, on our first day in Anchorage. Early in the morning we saw it in its snow-capped glory, but by the time we were able to get a photograph, the clouds had already settled in. Here is what we saw from a rooftop restaurant where we ate our first pie. 

Pies: Pies are popular in Alaska! Our first pie was a chocolate mousse pie, which was so rich and creamy that two of us could not finish one slice! We also enjoyed the seasonal fruit pies including a Fruits of the Forest Pie (blueberries and apples) as we dined in the domed car on the Alaskan Railroad from Anchorage to Denali.