Ben Goldstein stands at a display honoring Susan Butcher at the Visitors Discovery Center in Fairbanks. (Photo by David Goldstein) - Fairbanks, Alaska
I thought the highlight of my Alaskan vacation would be glaciers, but looking back on the past two weeks, what really stands out are the dogs. Since 1972, dog mushing has been the official state sport of Alaska, and visiting kennels, Iditarod training camps and Denali National Park, I learned two important lessons: Dog mushing is not cruel, and it is possible to compost dog poop.

To be clear about the relevance of these lessons, hooking up a dog to anything larger than a kid on a skateboard here in “the lower 48” — as Alaskans call most of the rest of the country — would probably get you in trouble with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. And trying to compost dog poop in local organics curbside collection programs would greatly anger the sorters who remove contaminants. If those sorters failed to do their job, poop could get the compost facility managing your discards in trouble with the local Environmental Health Department. To my points, however, some dogs love a life focused on pulling sleds over snow, and at least two impressive kennels have perfected techniques some of us might consider for home-based management of dog poop.

Also, to be clear about the glaciers, they were magnificent. The blue sparkle of Mendenhall Glacier, in mountains north of Juneau, melted into the gushing Nugget Falls, a display so big and powerful, its churning white water was clearly visible from the visitors’ center 1.5 miles away. Even more majestic, the sweeping view of glaciers from the bow of a ship was overwhelming, as my family forged through Glacier Bay National Park and College Fjord, above Prince William Sound. Rocky, glacier-carpeted shorelines rose to snow-capped mountains on both sides of the deck, as the ship’s propellers shot a silt-tinged wake into the distance.

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