the last frontier 13-19 july

friday the 13^th of july proved to be a lucky day for us.  we made it to alaska (the mainland) and arrived in the 1^st town of tok on the alcan--about 85 miles from the border!  we made it safely through one of the worst stretches of road so far on this journey.  lots of what they call ‘frost heaves’, where the frozen ground underneath, thaws and warms up but the unforgiving tarmac does not, which causes buckling in the roads and it’s a bit of a roller coaster ride.  if you get going too fast it can really damage your vehicle.  for the road repair crews, i'm sure it's a nightmare.

the mr is taking the photo

hello alaska!

frost heaves

more frost heaves

we made our way south from tok, temporarily leaving the alcan.  the alcan continues westward towards fairbanks but officially ends in the town of delta junction--the final leg of the alcan and the last 108 miles from tok.  we will do that segment in reverse after visiting fairbanks, so stay tuned for the alcan part 2 later on. 

we skirted the border of the largest national park in the US…do you know which park that would be?  we didn’t until now…the wrangell-st. elias national park…13.2 million acres and bigger than switzerland (or vermont and hn combined) in the se corner of the state (in the yukon and bc as well).  9 of the 16 highest peaks in the US are located here, america’s largest subpolar icefield, many glaciers, rivers, an active volcano and a historic copper mine.  only 2 rough-low clearance, gravel roads enter this park with 66% of it designated wilderness.  needless-to-say, we did not venture into the park, but did stop at the visitor center and we not only learned a bit of our nations largest national park but snapped some good shots as well.

mt wrangell 14,163ft

mt drum 12,010ft (center) (much closer which is why it looks so much larger), mt sanford (left) 16,237ft and on the right mt zanetti 13,009ft

the wrangell mountains--ranging from 7,000 to 16,500ft--just gorgeous peaks

as far as you can see is park

an interesting egg display

pelts from the various animals who live in the wrangell-st. elias np

a small portion of the alaskan pipeline on this section of road

our destination for this leg of the journey was valdez, again, another alaskan town bordering the coast, with beautiful glaciers, snow packed peaks and the sea.  the drive past wrangell-st. elias national park was beautiful (which road hasn't been on this journey??) and the climb up thompson pass, past worthington glacier and down into valdez was just spectacular.

thompson pass

worthington glacier

we visited a couple of very interesting museums in valdez, one focusing on the alaskan pipeline, which we thought was very interesting.  here are some facts we learned--the entire length is 799 miles long from prudhoe bay to valdez.  the construction was done by 20,000 workers and completed in 1977 after a 5 year delay.  much of the pipeline is buried, but much more is not...it crosses 800+ rivers and creeks, has 12 pumping stations and is built to move with the earth and with the never ending freezing and thawing.

the other museum was about the earthquake and tsunami which occured on good friday, 27 march 1964 which completely wiped the old valdez off the map.  it was a registered 9.2 earthquake (2nd most powerful ever recorded) with tsunami's registering up to 220 ft.  valdez, seward, kodiak and much of anchorage was destroyed.  this is the 'new' valdez.

a days catch--lingcod and halibut

preparing the fish for the fisherman

a winterized valdez snow plow

prince william sound--fishing boats

 

we stopped by the fish hatchery which was full of pink salmon but neglected to see any exhibit or museum of the oil spill of 1989...

pink salmon ready to spawn

we left valdez, heading back north the 115 miles to the glenn highway towards anchorage.  we found a lovely campground near the tolsona river in the tolsona wilderness campground.  amazingly enough, the owner of this campground is a fellow texan.

moving onwards to anchorage through the matanuska valley, with more spectacular views of mountains and glaciers!

the drive was incredibly gorgeous with clear skies and little traffic on the road.  we arrived in anchorage on the 18th, and went to stay with some friends we met in chad, africa.  mary and andrew put us up for a few days.  we managed a great 15+ mile bike ride with andrew where we were detoured by a mama moose and her calf on the trail.

mary and andrew

our journey began in texas months ago with one reservation on this entire trip...a float plane trip to visit the katmai bears on the 20th july...stay tuned for that visit in our next post, the katmai bears...