June 6th, 2024 Part 2 - Travel to Valdez

We continued our journey south from Glennallen to Valdez and the scenery - OH MY!  This is another picture intensive blog.

This area was just amazing - pictures just do not do it justice:

We continued south:

Can you imagine having a cabin/home here - this is Willow Lake:

Active volcano - WOW!

So many rivers:

And the pipeline:

Heading to the pass:

Love the daffodils and this little guy:

And the waterfalls - OH MY!  We are so blessed to be here when all the snow is melting!:

We have seen many signs that say " Do not stop! Avalanche area."  Here is an area where there was an avalanche:

We made our way to Thompson Pass - Look at that snow:

The top of Thompson Pass - pictures do not do it justice: 

Going down - those poles are snow poles.  They mark the edge for snow plows.  This area can get up to over 900 inches of snow (75 feet) of snow per season.  

Those gates are for road closures:

Going into Keystone Canyon - can you count the waterfalls:

It is hard to see here but the river was "grayish" - what is known as glacial silt or glacial flour.  Meaning this water is coming from the glaciers:

I will ask you to remember this bridge in a future blog - yes, we did explore it!:

We made our way into Valdez:

We will be here for at least a week or more.  We checked in to the Chena RV Park.  What an great place!.  There are 10 sites and we were lucky to get a site for 8 nights.  The owners, Judy and ?(sorry, forgot his name), were full timers before they set up this park and it shows.  It is roomy and homey and I cannot say enough good about them.

Once we set up, Judy stopped by and gave us some frozen salmon from their catch.  How wonderful.  As we chatted with them, we found out that they winter in Parker Arizona.  

So if you read my blog and are going to Valdez, Alaska for a length of time (more than 2 days), this is the place to stay.

So since we were be here for a while, stay tuned and enjoy today!

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 253 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Alaska: AK-1 (Tok Cutoff Highway/Taylor Highway); AK-1; (Richardson Highway); AK-4 (Richardson Highway)