It was SO NICE to leave the crowds behind and climb into a small covered wagon with a few other people and meander along a very quiet gravel road for a few hours.

It was a cloudy morning, but oh-so-peaceful...with the only sounds being the clip-clop of the horses' hooves and a few birds singing along the way.

We had hoped to see some interesting wildlife, but no luck...

...but the wagon did pull into a small camp area, where there were some reindeer (domesticated caribou...same species, just one is wild and the other domesticated).

Our cowboy driver showed us how to pan for gold...

Kim and I both panned for gold, but decided we'd never get rich doing it...

...as together we managed to find 6 small flakes.  But we did a lot of laughing doing it!

They had a fire going (it was a chilly morning...we used blankets inside the wagon)...

...and we made ourselves a mid-morning treat of s'mores (which some of the group had never heard of!).

Then it was time to "kiss" a reindeer!

Our cowgirl helper (who is married to the cowboy driver) demonstrated the technique, feeding a graham cracker to the reindeer with her mouth.

Kim did it...

...and I eventually did too, after much persuasion and peer pressure.  Ugh!  I almost didn't let go of the cracker in time!!!

Cowboy talked about how the moose shed their antlers each year, and how very heavy they are.

Since we had mentioned we were celebrating our 35th anniversary, we were first up to try on the antlers...

...and try to smooch without poking each other's eyes out or getting stuck together. We managed! Lots of practice (minus the antlers, of course...)!

Alaskans are very patriotic, we noticed!  Lots and lots of American flags everywhere...

More fireweed...I fell in love with this wildflower!

These horses spend their winters at their home stable near Anchorage.  Way too cold and snowy up here!  Their owner brings in big shipments of hay from Canada to feed them (and their 20 other stablemates...that's a LOT of hay!!!)

The tour may have been a bit cheesy, but it was really a wonderful relaxing morning with some interesting folks. 

Always nice to escape the crowds for the countryside, and what a fun way to do it...

...covered wagon cruisin'.