I awoke to another clear blue sky, and knew what was in
store for me today because I had driven part of the road last night with Mark
and Emmie. And they had said that the
drive today, all 300 miles of it back to Anchorage, was going to be like that
most of the way, except for a “boring bit” in the middle !! And they were right !!
I have come back through Anchorage simply because there are
limited ways that you can get around the Kenai Peninsula without doubling back
on the same roads each time. I have to
go on a couple of roads twice, so I am simply making sure that the ones I do
twice are the best ones !! So tomorrow I will go back down the fantastic
Turnagain Arm that I did a couple of days ago beside the train, and then on a
different road down to Seward. But for
today, after I had packed up at a leisurely pace, I went to take a pic of the
car with the mountains behind the Pipe Terminal in the back ground, and fairly
uickly there were 6 or 8 people from the RV Park gathered round chatting ! So it was about 11 am before I got away,
which left me no time to make a visit to the separate part of the museum that dealt with the destruction of the town
of Valdez in the 1964 earthquake and resulting tsunami, which is a shame as I
would like to have learned more. But it
seems there were a couple of major earthquakes around the world in 1964, but
the one in Valdez wiped the town out completely, and the present town is
located some distance from the old one.
The Richardson Highway is an incredible road, and once it
was weaved its way through the flatlands around the river delta near the old
city, you enter the stunning canyon that takes you up past Horsetail Falls and
Bridal Veil Falls – Both running at almost full volume at the moment due to
snow melt. And there are countless other
falls to catch your eye as you weave through the canyon. After the canyon, it
is then just a steady long and weaving climb up a magnificent road through the
fields of snow. There are no ski tows
here, so you either drive people to the top and they ski down, and then you
pick them up and drive back up the road again, or you get lifts on
Snowmobiles. Apparently there is also a
rich elite of heli-skiers who charter helicopters to take them to areas of
virgin snow where no one has probably ever skied before, which I am sure is
magnificent. Once over the top of the
first summit, more and more mountains and valleys just continually unfold
before your eyes – They just seem to go on and on, and get better and
………..better. This went on for the best
part of 100 miles, until we reached Glennallen, by which time I needed a cup of
coffee !
After Glennallen, we had the boring bit – But this is
relative - it is actually stunning rolling hills of
forest – It is just that there are no mountains in sight – Which is pretty rare
round here ! But after some 40 miles or so, we came back to the mountains, and
in particular the Matanuska glacier that comes right down to the road itself
from the 13,176 ft high Mount Baker in the Chugach Mountains, while you also
have the Talkeetna mountains n your right.
So back into breathtaking again for the run nto Palmer, and then into
Anchorage.
Once again, a stunning stunning drive, roof off all day
(actually got my nose burnt today !!), perfect temps of about 12 – 16 deg C all day, and I am now back in
Anchorage at the same campsite I was at previously. I have to have reliable wifi tomorrow am to
try to get some things sorted out with the bank at home in regard to my travel
card, and camp site wifi’s just don’t quite cut it round here – You never kno
whether you will be connected or not. So
it will be a couple of hours in Starbucks in the morning trying to get things
sorted.
I have to say that if anyone is considering a trip to
Alaska, Valdez should be on the
itinerary, especially if the weather is nice.
I found it stunning, although I may have been a little biased by the
wonderful hospitality of Mark and Emmie last night. Overall, really enjoyed my little side trip
through Wittier and Valdez, and look forward to coming back again before too
long to do all the bits I am missing !!!
