Varied Terrain

Ajax fits in different than the other dogs. He hardly sheds and so gets to ride in James' truck and in the camper where ever we go. Hes become quite the traveler and we believe he may be the only mini dachshund to make it so deep into Denali park and come out alive! : )

We had to keep him away from the windows when the bears came, not because we thought the bears would charge us but because hes so fearless that he wants to bark at anything that he isn't used to and scare the bears off. The idea that bears would be afraid of him is pretty hysterical!

On one of our stops to get pictures of the ground squirrels off the side of the road he yapped away at them over and over but one never moved. I guess he was too busy eating. Most of them were really flighty and ran away as the truck got closer.

I had to tie off his least to the seatbelt as we played our game of 'look for wildlife'. Every time the truck slowed and the window rolled down he would be up on his feet looking for what we were trying to spot. Seeing the ground squirrels were a real treat for him since he could see them so close. When we spotted the caribou crossing the road he really wanted to go out and give chase... he had the big boy complex riding so high in our truck!

Many of my pictures had to be taken while driving. James concentrated on the road, the blind corners, watching for tour buses and navigating the one lane narrow dirt road that was especially exciting through the mountain passes.

I kept my head firmly stuck out the window completely at east with James' driving skill and not wanting to add the stress of another person watching through the windshield wondering how we were going to make it through. It was very hard not to look over the edge on my side and freak at how far down the cliff dropped out from under us...