We made it!

The trip was long but fun. We discovered quickly that the "mid-May"
opening date for most camp sites has been pushed back due to unusually cold and snowy weather in northern BC and the Yukon. We camped for two bitterly cold nights (once on a playground) and splurged on a tiny room in Toad River.
In four days we saw seven bears, four moose, twenty bison (we passed an entire herd and saw some very young calves), a fox, some caribou, and a few wild horses. The last day of the drive included some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen; the horizon seemed to have been edged with > 8,000 ft rick rack trim. We were warmly welcomed to the nature center early Wednesday evening and had time to get ourselves unpacked in our (wonderful) cabin, and to drive over to visit Ben in his yurt. The sky was still bright when we went to bed around 11 pm.
The next morning, Ben took us on a tour of the grounds and we started learning to identify the peaks and the plants. The weather could not have been better: 70 F and brightly sunny.
We drove into Anchorage Friday morning. As we pulled out of the nature center parking lot, I looked over at the mailboxes and thought "well that's tacky," of and oddly-placed 8 ft statue of a moose by the side of the road. And then it moved. Somehow I'd forgotten where we were...

And then there's Friday's big highlight, which can only be described in pictures (we attended the parade).