As an avid outdoorswoman and the author of two hiking guidebooks, I've spent more time in the woods than the average North American woman has.

Sally O'Neal Coates

I've seen a LOT of wildlife. But before I traveled to Alaska this past January, I had never seen a moose. Oh, it wasn't for lack of trying. I have risen at dawn to trudge the trails at Yellowstone. I have driven stealthily along the Cassiar Highway in the outback of northcentral British Columbia. And the more bear, elk, deer, buffalo, mountain goats, wild sheep, and other large-scale indigenous fauna I spied, the more acute my sense of loss regarding my mooselessness.

This year, it would be different. This year, I was going to Alaska. Not only would I be wandering the wildest state in the union, I would be doing so in the dead of winter. Surely, I would see a moose.

The Moose Refuge
With only five hours of daylight this time of year, I knew I'd have to get busy if I wanted to spot a moose -- or anything for that matter -- during my four days on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. I contacted the U.S. Forest Service to find out what they would recommend in the way of wildlife-spotting sites near my destination. They directed me to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, headquartered in Soldotna.

This welcome sign makes moose spotting look promising.

The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge was originally established as the Kenai National Moose Range with a primary purpose of protecting the Alaska-Yukon moose. What luck! Surely I would spot a moose here. Of the thousands of acres of refuge, only a limited amount is accessible by car. This is further limited during the winter, although January 2005 was mild. Upon the advice of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, I chose to visit the Canoe Lakes area north-northeast of Soldotna. While remote by any stretch of the imagination, road conditions were said to be good here.

Welcome To Wildlife Viewing
As my traveling companions and I drove north from Homer, the day dawned pink then dazzling blue. By the time we reached Soldotna, the full brilliance of the winter sun shone low and powerful on the horizon.

Just a few miles north of town, we entered the refuge. A silhouette of a moose on the entrance sign was a good omen, I was sure.

Within minutes of entering the refuge, a bald eagle soared overhead.

Within the first hundred feet inside the refuge boundaries, an enormous bald eagle took flight from a copse of Sitka alder alongside the snow-covered, two-lane road, winging low and unhurried overhead. THIS was what we were after!

The Riches Of The KNWR
Along with the vaunted moose, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is home to brown and black bears, caribou, Dall sheep, mountain goats, wolves, lynx, wolverines, and, as we now had witnessed, the bald eagle. Dozens of species of shorebirds, songbirds, and waterfowl live in or pass through the area (I counted 177 species on the web page devoted to the topic, http://kenai.fws.gov/Wildlife/birds/birdlist.htm). And the fish population includes salmon (chinook, sockeye, coho and pink), Dolly Varden char, rainbow trout, and arctic grayling.

Walk On The Wild Side
We cruised slowly and reverently in our heated rental car, jaws dropped and necks craned in the inimitable fashion of tourists from the Lower 48. Soon, we could stand it no longer, and we pulled off in one of the lake access parking lots. A map told us that there would be many of these along the route, with trails ranging from a few dozen feet to a mile or two leading to frozen lakes. (The lakes in this area combine, with a little portage, to form a popular canoe route in the summer.)

Trudging frozen solid Mosquito Lake, which is both mosquito-free and, alas, moose-free as well.

Our first stop was Mosquito Lake. Secure in our knowledge that the insect namesake would be absent this day, we eagerly donned our layers of insulated clothing and took the quarter-mile walk to the hard, white surface of Mosquito Lake. Ringed in golden willows and alder, green-black pines, and dappled birch trees, the lake's surface was a crazy quilt of hairline cracks and ice crystals magical to behold. After two hours in the car, we enjoyed stretching our legs and listening to the dead-of-winter silence of the snow, punctuated by the occasional groan or pop of shifting ice.

But we saw no moose.

Please read more in Part 2.

Sally O'Neal Coates is a travel writer who hails from Washington State. For more information on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, point your Internet browser to http://kenai.fws.gov. For more of this story, stay tuned for the next installment.