Our 2007 Driving Tour Of Alaska - Glenallen, Days 17-18
May 24, Day 17. Up early and out by 8:00. Loaded up and hit AK-2 for Glennallen by way of North Pole.
We had two options for getting to Valdez, One: follow AK-2 to Tok, then cut down on AK-1 to where it joins AK-4 just north of Glennallen or, two: follow AK-2 to Delta Junction and follow AK-4 on down to Glennallen. The latter route is also called the Richardson Highway. According to one of our tour books, this was the most scenic option so we chose that one. But first, we had to make a stop at North Pole so Dot could see Santa Claus's house. I didn't get any pictures of the inside of the Santa Claus House but it must be the largest gift shop in the world and all dedicated to Christmas themes.
We saw a description of a restaurant and inn called Rika's Roadhouse and Landing in our highway guide (The Mileposts - a must for anyone driving around Alaska). It is an historic restaurant and river landing from the gold rush period. We took a look at the buildings and had lunch at the restaurant. The food was very good and they were having a sale on their tourist items. At the time we were there, everyone was gearing up for the tourist season. All the gift shops were clearing out leftover merchandise from last year to make room for this years offerings. Some of the items were really cheap. After lunch and two jackets, five caps and a few tee shirts (grin), we proceeded on down AK-4
If you look at the map, there is a section between Delta Junction and Glenallen that looks a little like white spaghetti. This is the Alaska Range and was the scenic area we were promised by the tour book. Indeed, the snow covered mountains were awe inspiring as we approached them. The third of the distant views was taken across a river bed. You can just detect the river against the far side. The river beds were usually very wide like this one. It was explained that when the rivers freeze, the water changes courses to avoid the ice and, year after year, end up eroding a very wide bed. Most of it is relatively dry at any one time but there will be a channel that may move around within a years time.
As we got into the mountains, they were even more impressive. The photos below show several glaciers in the valleys up in the mountains.
The We hit an area where the road ran alongside an ice covered lake. It was mid May and this lake was still thickly covered by ice. The first photo below shows the frozen lake in the foreground. If you look closely at the first photo, you can see the interesting green moraine streaming down the side of the mountain. The colors in this section of the Alaska Range were pretty so I took several shots of them.
We had seen virtually no interesting wildlife until, after crossing the mountains, we encountered another Porcupine. As I turned around, a motorhome stopped in the middle of the highway, two guys got out and scared the animal away. I managed to get a couple of shots of him before he completely disappeared.
We reached Glennallen late in the afternoon and checked into the Caribou Lodge. Had dinner at the Caribou Restaurant associated with the lodge. After driving around the settlement for a while, we hit the sack in order to go into the Wrangle - St. Elias National Park and Preserve tomorrow.
May 25, Day 18. Up early and had breakfast at the Caribou Restaurant. We had decided the evening before that we'd drive into the Wrangle-St. Elias National Park via the only road into the park in this area. This gravel road takes off at Chitna and goes to McCarthy inside the park.
We headed out for Chitna but first, stopped at the Wrangle-St. Elias NP Visitors' Center nust north of Copper Center. After watching a video presentation and getting info about the park and McCarthy Road, we took leave of the Visitors' Center. As you can see from the map above, to get to Chitna and the entrance to the McCarthy Road, we had to turn off AK route 4 onto the Edgerton Highway which runs along the Copper River. Some of the views of the mountains in the distance across or along the river were very pretty.
We ran across an Alaska Recreation Area, Liberty Falls RA, along the Edgerton Highway. Thinking that it might be interesting, we parked alongside the road (the drive into the recreation area was closed) and walked down to the stream. We found that a bridge across the stream had been partially washed away - thus the closed park. I scrambled across the rocks and downed trees to move in so I could get a good shot of the falls only to have it ruined by lens flare due to the position of the sun.
After a half hour or so scrambling around in the rocks and trees along the stream, I gave up and came back to the picnic area. We drove across the highway bridge and came in from the other side of the stream where we could access the washed out bridge. The washout was only at the end on the other side of the stream where we had just been. I managed to get a couple of shots of the falls, albeit hidden by the big rocks at it's foot, and the roiling water below the falls. The area on the right side of the stream was the stuff I had to clamber around in to get the shot above.
We continued on to Chitna and across the river and through a narrow pass to McCarthy Highway. It was a pretty good gravel road so we figured we'd drive as far as we could without hitting any difficult areas. We stopped just after passing through the pass to look for Bison on the bluff across the broad river bed but saw none. We drove on out the road for about ten miles before encountering a "wash over" where a lake on one side of the road drained into a stream on the other. There was a van perched precariously on the lake side of the road and a pickup truck on the other side of the wash over. The driver of the truck yelled that we could make it OK and motioned us to come through the middle of the wash. We called back that since this was a rental car, we didn't want to take the chance. Another pickup came up and drove through the wash. The Water level on the truck was such that we were glad we didn't try to get across. I think the floor would have gotten wet. As we turned around, we realized that the people on the other side were calling to us again. We stopped and they said that the two girls driving the van needed a ride into Chitna to get a tow truck to pull their van out. We agreed to take them back to Chitna and they waded across the wash while we repacked everything to clear the back seat. The two young ladies, Jana from Australia and Staci from New Zealand, disclosed that they had thought they could get through the wash easier by hugging the side of the road but dropped the two outside wheels off the road. They had been working together in Canada and had decided to tour Alaska before flying to Scotland, Europe and then home. They, too, planned to go to Valdez after visiting McCarthy. We started back to Chitna but encountered a Forest Service truck and Forest Service employee after about five miles. We stopped and asked if he knew of anyone with a tow truck that might be called into service to help the young ladies. He said he had a heavy duty tow line and thought he could pull them out. He had a really big, dual wheeled Forest Service pickup truck so Stacie and Jana decided to transfer to his truck and go back to have another shot at pulling their van out of the wash.
After this bit of excitement, we drove on back to Chitna, wondering if we had done the right thing by dropping them off with the Forest Service employee. He seemed like a nice young man but with two attractive young ladies alone . . . Anyway, we worried all the way back to Glennallen, had dinner at the Caribou restaurant and turned in. Tomorrow we head for Valdez.