THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 47 July 2, 2009 Lake Lousie to Valdez, AK

What a day! The drive from the Glenn Highway down the Richardson Highway into Valdez was awesome. It was just one vista, one view, one WOW after another.

It started with us paralleling but not entering the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park.

The park is the largest National Park in the US and is referred to as the "mountain kingdom of North America" as the Chugach, The Alaska and Wrangell-St.Elias ranges converge here. This spectacular wilderness includes the continent's largest assemblage of glaciers, and the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet, including Mount St. Elias (18,008'), the second highest peak in the United States.

Blackburn, Sanford, Drum and Wrangell are four mountains that can be see from the road quite clearly with Drum being the smallest at 12,010 feet. However as it is the closest it looks larger than the other three and in fact is was two thousand feet higher before it erupted and blew it's top off. It is extinct as the eruption was about 250,000 year ago. Mount Wrangell is still active and on a clear day you can see the smoke mixing with the clouds.






Mount Drum

Mount Wrangell - the cloud looking mass above the mountain is the smoke from the Volcano.

We continued along the Glenn Highway and I kept our speed quite low for two reasons. 1) You can't see anything if you are not going slow and 2) the road was the worst we have come across in Alaska or the Yukon. It was full of heaves and you had to be very alert or you just might catch some air. The views were stunning and we stopped as often as we could to take pictures.














































































The next stop was the Worthington Glacier and like most of Alaska’s glaciers, this valley glacier has been steadily retreating for the last 150 years, but not as dramatic as many others. The upper basin sits at 5,500 feet and collects about 28 feet of snow each year. You can drive to within a mile of the glacier and hike in the rest of the way. We only went a short way as we were not properly dressed for the change in temperature as you get closer. We took a bunch of pictures and headed on down the road.













































Melted Glacial water from
Worthington Glacier






A short drive down the road is Thompson Pass.















At the top of Thompson Pass is Blueberry Hill, aptly named for the blueberries that grow there in the summer. Summer is going to be on a Sunday this year. The view from Blueberry Hill is quite spectacular and this is another occasion where I would to have the photography experience and equipment to truly capture what we see.
























































The one aspect of Thompson Pass that truly amazed me was the amount of snowfall it gets each year. During the winter months it can receive as much as 90 feet of snow with 75 feet being about the average. I just can't imagine it.







Start of the Pass







The pass weaves it way down between the two mountains and the 2678 foot drop happens quickly. The views are phenomenal.

The white strip between the two mountains is not snow. It is a large bank of clouds. Awesome.

As we hit the bottom of Thompson Pass we go right into Keystone Canyon.

Keystone Canyon is three miles long and in that three miles there are three waterfalls.

Bridleveil Falls

Horse Tail Falls

When we came out of the Canyon we weren't far out of Valdez so we continued into town, gassed up and headed over to the RV park and set up. We did a little BBQing, sat and watched the view from the camper and then called it a night.

Another great day in retirement.

THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 46 July 1, 2009 Anchorage to Lake Louise, AK

Happy Canada Day! We didn't get away until 4pm as the truck wasn't ready until noon. We had to put the camper on the truck, gas up and stock up on groceries. We then made a quick stop at the RV supply store for a new water filter and then headed out.

We travelled northwest on the Glenn Highway. From the point where the Glenn Highway joins the George Parks Highway and the Richardson Highway, it is about 185 miles long. We were told that it was a boring drive and there was not much on it. There isn't much on it but it was anything but boring.

The vistas and change is landscape were amazing.

It started with the Matanuska River Valley Basin which was left over from the Matanuska Glacier as it receded.

Matanuska River Valley Basin

Mantasuka River

We followed the Matanuska River for quite awhile going though Hatcher Pass and many magnificent vistas until we came to Matanuska Glacier.

Matanuska River with King Mountain in the background

Mountain on Right is another view of King Mountain

Matanuska Glacier

It wasn't long after we passed Matanuska Glacier that we stopped for supper at a viewpoint. It was at a higher altitude and the view was pretty nice.

We finished supper and headed out intending to get to Lake Louise but prepared to boondock if need be. We were not able to travel at any great speed as the road had a lot of heaves in it. The nice part of the bad road was that you had to go slow enough to really enjoy the scenery. So thats what we did.

We hit mile marker 160 and headed north into Lake Louise. We were pleasantly surprised to find a paved road as the map we had showed that is was gravel. It was only 20 miles to the campsite so me made it with ease. We settled in for the night but not before I took some pictures of the lake. It is big lake and gets a lot of use in all seasons mostly by the locals.

Campsite at Lake Louise Campground

Lake Louise

Lake Louise

Tomorrow we are heading for Valdez. It is the long weekend and all the campsites will be full but we were able to get reservations at the Bear Paw RV Park in Valdez. There are a number of activities that we are hoping to explore.

THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 44, & 45 June 29, 30, 2009 Russian River to Anchorage, AK

It was an early morning for me as I tried my hand at Salmon Fishing once again. I got up at 5:00 am, had coffee and headed down to the ferry to cross the river. I fished for about 2 hours and actually got 4 on my line and couldn't get any of them in. If I loosened the tention they just ran away and if I tightened it they simply broke the line. I talked with a couple of old pros and they told me that my line was too light. I had 25 lb. test on and I needed at least 40 lb. to fish in this conjested area as you do not have room to play them. However it was still fun.

I headed by to the camper, had something to eat and we headed down the road to the Russian River Campsite and hoped to get a parking spot. We wanted to hike up to the Russian River Falls and watch the salmon jumping.



The Salmon were jammed in at the bottom of the falls waiting to get a chance at the falls. We watched them trying to get up and it was a difficult task. There was a fish ladder that Parks and Wildlife opened when there got to be too many pooled together. You could not fish right at the bottom of the falls but had to be 600 yards downstream.

















It was about a 3 mile hike one way and going in was mostly uphill. The good part was that the mosquitos were not that bad as Kathy only had to pull her bug hat once. We reached the end of the trail and watched the falls and the fishermen for awhile and then headed back.



On the way we saw a mother Ptarmigan and her chicks and were able to get a couple of shots.




Kathy also said I needed to take pictures of something other than landscape and animals. So here are some Alaskan Flowers.








Wild Geranium












Alaskan Wild Rose








When we got back to the parking lot we changed clothes and headed for Anchorage. The drive from the cutoff of the Sterling Highway and the Seward highway north into Anchorage is just as stunning as the drive down. I would hope that if I lived here I would never get complacent and take this rugged beauty for granted.

We arrived in Anchorage and had plans to take the truck in for an oil change and front end alignment and then head east towards Glenallen. Well you know what happens when you make plans. It turns out I needed a little more work on the front end that I thought and they couldn't get it done until the next day. A thousand dollars later the shimmy has gone out of the front end. So we stayed two nights in Anchorage and left as soon as the truck was ready on the 1st of July.