Author: Steve

It is with some sadness that we pack up for tomorrow’s drive.  The Alaska trip isn’t over, but this part of it is.  The calendar says it’s time to go.  The weather says it’s time to go.  With low temperatures in the forties, touching on lows in the thirties, we want to stay ahead of the weather.  When you look at our trip map, it may not look like we’re going, because to leave this part of Alaska, we first have to drive north for 250 miles but really, we’re on our way.

In the meantime, here are some boats.

Including some featured in television’s Deadliest Catch.

After that brutal crabbing season out of Dutch Harbor in the winter, the boats come down to Valdez for the summer and tender salmon from the fishing boats out in the sound to the processing centers on the docks in town.

A Dall’s porpoise making a splash.

Another humpback whale tail.

A whale blow-hole.  Here, the whale is moving right to left with the small dorsal fin just beginning to clear the water.  The head is underwater.  The blow-hole is well behind the head.

And here, the whale is moving left to right, with the dorsal just coming out of the water and the head under.

The head doesn’t have to clear the surface for the whale to come up and breath, just the blow-hole, and then the rest of the body follows.

And an iceberg.

4,396 miles to Sandpipers.

The salmon run is still going strong.

Pinks and Coho.

The black-legged kittiwakes are there to help.

As are a few contented seals.

A couple more waterfall pictures.

And windshield evening light.

At least some semblance of day/night timing has returned.  By the time we go to bed, it’s at least dusk, and we don’t have to pull down our blackout shades.  It gets dark by the middle of the night and in the morning, we can tell it’s daylight through the normal window shades.  Yes!

The KOA was a setup for this park.  We’ve moved into town.

The Valdez part of the trip map

Our windshield view.

Every other view.

From the Glenn Highway.

To the Richardson Highway.

We finished the day at the Valdez KOA.

The Middle Part

Much cooler weather.  Last night was in the 30s.  There is not a lot of fall color here, but a little.

And Henry was a very happy, and tired, glacier dog yesterday.

He stepped in mud up to his armpits before we had him go into a pond to rinse off.  (This is him rinsed off.)  It’s really easy to get him to go into a pond; just show him a stick and throw it into said pond.

Remember that glacier we passed yesterday?

We drove back to it today for an extended visit.

The Glennallen and Matanuska Glacier part of the trip

The Matanuska Glacier; the largest glacier in the United States accessible by car.  Twenty-seven miles long and up to four miles wide.  It advances a foot a day.  I left the map on satellite view to show the giant icefield to the south feeding so many glaciers.

We started from here.

The trail led off to the side, through the glacial moraine.

The walking surface looked like sand and gravel, but underneath the surface layer it was all ice.

Many spots required makeshift bridges.

We hiked until the sand gravel ice mixture was all ice.

As is the case with glaciers, the weather got noticeably colder as we got right up to it.

On the way back, we stopped by Lake Louise Lodge.  Not the Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada (Near Banff), but the one in Alaska.

Know what frost heaves look like?  They look a lot like this.

It’s a woo-hoo ride.

And finished the day with more local cuisine.

The view from the gas station.