Leaving Anchorage

“East Bound and Down, loaded up and truckin’ “(Jerry Reed)

"Still crazy after all these years"

Leaving Anchorage was sort of a pivotal time for us. From North Carolina we have traveled mostly west; from now on we will go mostly east. We had a wonderful visit with Carol and Bill Batson. They took us down to the historic community of Hope south of Anchorage on Turnagain Arm. On the way we saw lots of mountain goats and our first close-up moose. It is dip-netting season for Alaskan residents and whole families are out getting their quota to freeze for the winter. 

The kids have fun while the adults fish.

 

 

 

The moose

Unfortunately it is also forest fire season and the day after our visit to Hope, the entire area became involved in a wildfire. The highway to the Kenai Peninsula was partially closed and the smoke was severe. Butch and I had decided to pass on going back to Homer and Seward this trip anyway but the smoke and road closures confirmed our decision. We ran into the same situation with wildfires in 2013, but we were headed the other way. That time we did not go to Fairbanks and we had to hurry from Delta Junction to Tok to get out of the way.

We drove from Anchorage to Valdez on Wednesday in excellent weather. It is over 300 miles and there was lots of road construction so there was no point in getting in a hurry. Once we turned south on the Richardson Hwy, the scenery was so magnificent that going slow was not a problem.  We even stopped for an hour at Willow Lake Viewpoint and took a nap! At this point, the highway parallels the Wrangell-St Elias National Park and the three highest mountains; Mount Drum, Mount Sanford, and Mount Wrangell can be seen in all their snow-capped glory.  From there the road climbs up to incredible views of Worthington Glacier and through Thompson Pass, which is one of the most breath-taking panoramas in the world. Coming down, the highway passes through Keystone Canyon and into Valdez. Keystone Canyon is noted for its stunning waterfalls that are popular with ice climbers in the winter.

Small boat harbor

Cleaning the catch

This is my third visit to Valdez and I found it to be very different. In June of 2013 it was a quiet, friendly little town; now we are in the midst of the fishing season and it is jam packed with folks. There is a major downtown paving project going on and the heavy machinery can be heard from early ‘til late. It is also raining. I “suit-up” and go for walks anyway, but I am growing tired of urban camping and longing for the boonies again.  Our plan is to leave tomorrow and drive back toward Glenallen. We want to take the McCarthy-Kennicott Road (unpaved) into Wrangell-St Elias NP, weather and wildfires permitting. If it continues to rain we will just keep moving. We changed our ferry reservations and will leave from Prince Rupert on the 3^rd instead of the 7^th. We want to have more time to spend on Vancouver Island.

Returning to BC will inhibit our cell phone and internet usage so I may be out of touch for awhile.