Eureka Summit (Glenn Hwy), AK to Valdez, AK – 224 Miles, including 40-mile side trip to Lake Louise
The day began with the usual weather: rain overnight, cool and overcast in the morning. The only difference was it that it was few degrees colder than the past several days – in the mid-40’s as we arose. This may be because we’ve been down near sea level for the past week and last night we were up at approximately 2300 feet.
Our goal for the day was Valdez, so we were off by 9:30, hoping to make the 175 or so miles by early afternoon. We first strayed from the straight and narrow when we decided to detour up a side road to Lake Louise, described in the Milepost as a “popular year-round destination for Alaskans,” with numerous lodges and campgrounds, and supposedly a really hot fishing spot. We weren’t going to camp or fish, but we just wanted to see this lake. The lake is reached by a 20-mile paved road which has the worst frost heaves we’ve experienced so far on our journey. It goes up a ridge of low hills through a forest of willows and stunted black spruce – sure signs of shallow permafrost. A couple of miles up the roads there are excellent views of the Tazlina Glacier, several miles away across the valley to the south. We were surprised at our first view of the lake; it is quite large, several miles in length and width. There are numerous islands with vacation cottages along the near shoreline, but apparently this is a slack time for fishing because there was very little activity on or around the lake. We followed the road to its end at a boat ramp, just past an airport runway, then did a 180 and returned back to the main highway.
The Glenn Highway at this point travels across a broad plateau, dotted with small ponds and lakes, and with predominately willow and black spruce vegetation. There is some undergrowth, but it’s not exactly like the tundra we saw and experienced up in Denali Park. I believe the term for this is muskeg, but I’m not sure and don’t have wi-fi here in the campground to Google it.
We rolled into the small town of Glennallen at about 11:30 and filled our gas tank. Gas was expensive -- $4.419 per gallon as opposed to $3.799 per gallon back in Anchorage. There was a lodge and restaurant next to the gas station, so we decided to grab a quick soup and sandwich for lunch before continuing on to Valdez.
A few miles south of Glennallen is the Headquarters and Visitor Center for the Wrangell-St Elias National Park. This huge National Park occupies most of the southeastern part of the main land mass of Alaska. Its primary attractions are the two mountain ranges from which it gets its name. The ranges are home to several humongous peaks reaching up to 19,000 feet. Given that these rise directly from the sea level at the shores of the Gulf of Alaska, they are the highest shoreline mountains in the world. I think there’s a fancy name for that, but I can’t recall it. Anyway, there’s a very nice 20-odd minute movie at the Visitor Center that describes the park quite well. After the movie and browsing the bookstore, the net result was we came away another hour behind schedule. But who cares, this trip has no schedule.
The road continues through a mixed spruce and aspen forest for several miles south of the National Park facilities. You can tell fall comes early up here as already small patches of yellow are beginning to appear on the tips of the aspen and the willow branches along the road. The Alaska Pipeline parallels the highway as it also makes its way toward Valdez, and is visible in several locations off through the trees.
About halfway between Glennallen and Valdez the terrain begins to change as the road begins to penetrate the Chugach Mountains on its way to Prince William Sound. If we thought the scenery yesterday was unsurpassed, we were wrong. This scenery was fantastic, even in the fog and mist. The highway winds along rivers and through canyons, all the while surrounded by massive, rocky peaks. The lower slopes are lush green forests of aspen and spruce, and waterfalls and cataracts abound as the abnormal rain of this wet summer are added to the normal snowmelt and glacial outflow. And since I mentioned glaciers, there are several along here, at least three of which are visible from the highway. The largest of these is the Worthington Glacier, which terminates in two broad fingers of ice just off the highway. There is a short pull-off and side road which leads up to an overlook for viewing the glacier’s terminus just a quarter mile or so away. If you’re so inclined, you can walk right up to the edge of the ice itself.
Just a couple of miles from the glacier overlook the road passes over Thompson Pass (2673 ft) and begins its long descent down to Valdez. The view from the pass is supposed to be fantastic, but on this day it was socked in solid with fog. Hopefully when we return back up this way in a couple of days it will be clear and we’ll see what we’ve been missing. One thing I want to mention – along the road at this point as well as at several other places, the highway is lined with L-shaped pipes approximately 15 feet high planted at the edge of the shoulder, with the leg of the L hanging out to the edge of the pavement. I wondered about these and it finally dawned on me: they’re guides for the snowplows, which otherwise would have no idea where the pavement is located. They get a lot of snow here.
As the road drops lower and lower, the vegetation becomes almost like a rain forest. Along the riverbanks large cottonwoods are the primary species, underlain by the ubiquitous alder, willow, and occasional aspen. Higher up, the spruce dominate. At one point the road squeezes through Keystone Canyon, a narrow gorge with near-vertical walls rising hundreds of feet. At every turn there are waterfalls, two of which, Bridal Veil and Horsetail (you knew they had to be called that – how many are there around the world with these names?), are quite large and really beautiful. Bridal veil in particular is at least two or three hundred feet high, and falls in a series of sheer layers of spraying water.
The canyons open up into a wider, flatter delta as you approach Valdez. At one point, the river is almost level with the road. Before reaching the outskirts of town, a road branches off toward the far side of the inlet to the Pipeline terminal where the oil is loaded onto ships. The lady who runs a small visitor center at the Worthington Glacier overlook told us to be sure to take this road as far as the fish hatchery as the shoreline along the road there is a gathering spot for fishing men, fishing bears, and fishing otters as the salmon congregate in great numbers before beginning their spawning runs up the creeks leading up into the mountains surrounding Prince William Sound. That’s on our agenda for tomorrow.
Before actually reaching the city of Valdez, we turned off the main highway to reach our campground, called Glacier View because as you drive up the road there is a good view of yet another glacier, this one called Valdez Glacier, just a short distance up the same road. So I guess you could say we have our own glacier just up the street.
No comments:
Post a Comment