The Richardson Highway

Willow Lake Viewpoint: Drum, Sanford, Wrangell, Blackburn in the distance.

The Richardson Highway is largely known for as one of the most spectacular roads in Alaska.  We joined the Richardson from the Tok Cutoff, followed it down to Valdez and then backtracked to Glenallen where we turned North for Delta Junction to meet the Alaska Highway.  The Richardson diverges from the Copper River just after the Wrangell St. Elias Visitors Center and then winds through deep mountain valleys, following the Alaska pipeline in the distance.  We passed construction on multiple enormous drainage culverts, for what I imagine is a massive spring/summer runoff from the surrounding glacial mountains.

Waiting in construction

At the top of Thompson Pass Worthington Glacier watches over the Highway and Blueberry Lake hangs in the clouds.  We chatted with our flagger during a 20 minute road construction stop. She is a gymnast and snowboarder who lives in Valdez during the summer, takes advantage of great snow for the fall and spring but heads South, to the lower 48, during the darkest days. She said many Alaskans follow this schedule. So friendly!

Worthington Glacier State Recreation Site (pay)

No problem stopping here for Road Construction

Kenedy's bike trying to stay in Alaska. Tighten that baby up!

We passed many, many historic lodges and beautiful camp spots along the Richardson Highway, stopped for a pop at Tonsina River Lodge and thought long and hard about staying at The Lodge at Black Rapids, but ultimately opted to keep moving.  Why? Sometimes logic gets thrown out the window on long road trips. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Also, I think we were a little woozy after seeing Gulkana Glacier at the end of a rainbow. Yes, this really happened.

Gulkana Glacier

Two hundred pictures later, we stopped to touch the Alaska pipeline. The pipeline is a feat of engineering, but we all knew this.  Really, though, it can expand and contract with Alaska winter temps, flexs with soil constitution, crosses numerous active faults and has an earthquake detection system which worked in 2002 when the pipeline withstood a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. We also imagined the Galloping Glacier advancing three miles in one year, now melted out of sight. 

Pipeline Info

Galloping Glacier AKA Black Rapids Glacier (kids hiding in the brush, too)

Tall, rugged mountains made way to a flatter, hilly landscape as we passed "Donnelly Dome" and army and airforce installations before Delta Junction. We pitched our tent at Delta State Recreation Site Campground. Here we felt, first hand, the weight of Alaska fires under the orange, smoky sky as firefighting helicopters loaded and unloaded right next to our campsite.  Our campground was about half full with very nice, private sites, pit toilets and water that needed to be boiled.

Delta State Recreation Site 

Tomorrow we start the long journey back down the Alaska Highway. Still in front of us: Whitehorse, hotsprings, three huge lakes, cinnamon rolls, the signpost forest and one last stop through the Canadian Rockies.

Valdez

We loved Valdez.  And we hated Valdez. The landscape is from fairytales: waterfalls in all directions, and glaciers, gushing rivers, green mountain-sides and a brilliant aquamarine harbor with bright colored fishing boats and kayaks.

Valdez has wildlife, hiking, boating and fishing, history, culture, good beer and coffee.  But, it also has bugs. Oh the bugs. Bugs you can't see.  That are still crawling all over you when you finally fall into your sleeping bag, in the light, at 12:30 AM after a manic, wonderful day.

Black clouds rolling in over Valdez Harbor

Valdez Harbor on a clear morning.

And, paradise is expensive. Of all the places we stayed, we felt the $$$ slipping away here the most. We stayed three nights, our first in a $280/night hotel/motel (where the bus tour people stay) because we were desperate for a shower and darkness.  Kris took a call at 6AM Alaska Time from the mighty, tiny trailer in the parking lot so as not to wake us from our dark slumber.

Welcome to Valdez!

I guess the bugs contributed to the cost of Valdez, as well. We could hardly eat at our campsite (back at the KOA) without persistent and infuriating black flies and mosquitoes. This was a love-hate ordeal because eating poutine and drinking craft brews on the harbor at a picnic table (where the bugs were oddly absent) was exactly what we wanted to do every night.

Roadside Potatohead

Kris worked at Latte Dah for three days while we rode bikes to Valdez Glacier Lake, learned about the gold rush, 9.2 magnitude earthquakes and oil spills at the history museum, history warehouse and historic walking tour.  Over the course of maybe forty five minutes (after touring the remains of the pre-1964 town of Valdez) we watched water completely consume the old dock.

Riding to Valdez Glacier Lake (SO MANY black flies)

Before Tide

After Tide

the pinks come home

Catching the Big One

And then we watched the pinks swarming the Solomon Gulch Hatchery, trying to come home, while those dastardly sea lions, sea otters, seals, gulls and terns feasted on them. Ah, nature. Humans included.  We munched french fries and fried fish while watching fishermen of the human kind bring back massive halibut from day long fishing trips in the Bay.

We loved Valdez. And, we hated Valdez.

The Copper River Basin

We monitored The Milepost closely along the Tok Cutoff to Glenallen and learned about the black spruce forests and drunken trees that grow in permafrost, fishing spots for salmon and Arctic grayling and where to watch for bears and caribou (though we didn't see any).  

Mount Sanford

A nice, wide pull out at the Christochina River bridge (GJ 35.2) offered an outhouse but we couldn't figure out how to get to the huge, braided river. Instead we drove further and found vistas of the Wrangell Mountains, including Mount Sanford and Mount Blackburn which are 16,000+ foot volcanoes.

Gakona Junction

After a long segment of gnarly construction, we landed at Galkona Junction: left to Valdez (129 miles), right to Fairbanks (235 miles). So many choices. Left would take us down the Richardson Highway, largely deemed one of the most scenic in Alaska. Right would take us to Denali where we had a reservation at Riley Creek campground. We chose left and caught the Richardson Highway South: take us to Valdez, that place of earthquakes and oil, and where prospectors headed deep into the mountains to find the Klondike goldfields.

Dry Creek campsite

But first, a stop in Glenallen to consider how to tackle Wrangell St-Elias National Park. In Glenallen we toured the very nice cabins at Northern Lights Campground and RV Park (tent sites were full) but ended up camping at Dry Creek State Recreation Site. Dry Creek is ten minutes from town, has a large cistern of water (needs to be boiled) along with very clean pit toilets. We watched snowshoe hares dart across the road, depleted our water reserves and enjoyed the quiet.

The Copper River Valley with the Wrangell Mountains

Wrangell- St Elias National Park is dauntingly undeveloped and with Kris back at work, days spent in the remote backcountry were not an option.  McCarthy Road and the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark were very appealing: beautiful, remote, and historic with glaciers you can walk to and walk on. But, McCarthy Road follows a 1909 railroad bed for 59 miles to Kennecott; an old road complete with old railroad spikes and we need our car with tires intact to drive 3,000 miles back home!  As a compromise we were SO CLOSE -a click away- from splurging on the Kennicott shuttle.  Regrets?  Probably. That said, time was getting surprisingly tight (Glenallen: July 16th, Amy back to work: August 5th, Kenedy soccer tournament: August 8th) with so much left to see and we were really, really excited about getting to, and spending as much time as possible in Valdez.

Soooo... we stopped through the Copper Valley IGA for raisin bread, peanut butter and jelly, grabbed an Americano (Yes, Kaladi beans!) at Trailside Espresso, filled up the gas-guzzling, trailer-towing XC60 and planned for a short stop at the Wrangell- St Elias Visitor Center.

PB&J on raisin bread outside the Exhibit Hall

The Visitor's Center was surprisingly busy. We joined a nature walk where Kenedy and Tucker tasted pumpkin berries and walked through the boreal forest looking for signs of animal activities from winters past.  The Visitor's Center lays on the old Valdez Trail, a wagon road from the turn of the 19th century.  Our walk on the old narrow road, through the dense forest, drove home just how hard it must have been to construct wide, paved highways that crisscross Alaska and keep them open winter after winter, year after year.  

Kris took advantage of connectivity at the Visitor's Center and spent the afternoon working at a lovely picnic table in the courtyard of the complex. We all made about 200 trips back and forth to water bottle refill station to replenished our water supply.  Ready. Onward!