I was transfixed. Land of transfixations. No such word in Webster's, but it fits anyway. Alaska trips you up with startling vignettes of nature, again and again. Even if you step on the mushroom, you can't avoid catching the spell.
Nature is just about all there is here.
Alaska is stunningly mountained, rivered, forested, plained, birded, elked, beavered and beared. Then there are the whales, eagles, puffins, walruses. I hoped to see one puffin. Hoped to see a whale. Hoped not to see a grizzly.