June 6th, 2024 - Part 1 - Travel to Glennallen

We woke to another beautiful day, packed up and headed south.

If you look at an Alaska Road Map, the major roads go in a circle around the cities/towns.  Many folks do the counter clockwise version - Delta Junction, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Kenai, Valdez and back to Tok (with many side journeys in between.)  We did that in 2007 and 2009 but this year we decided to do the counterclockwise version.  One of the reasons is that we did not spend much time in Valdez.

In 2007, we spent a few days and in 2009, we skipped it totally.  This year my intention was to spend at least a week there.

So I am getting a little ahead of myself here but my plans were to spend 2-3 days getting to Valdez.  Our first night plans were to stay at a state campground near Glennallen, the second night would be spent at another state park near the Thompson Pass and then we would be in Valdez.  WELL! that didn't happen because both state parks were closed because of the snow - LOL!  (Yes, I did check the websites and both said they were open as of mid-May!).

We did stop at both state parks, also in Glennallen and did end up going all the way to Valdez.   We had reservations to stay a week in Chena RV park in Valdez and, Thank God, she (Judy) had openings for us to come in early!

This blog will be broken into two parts: from Tok to Glennallen and then from Glennallen to Valdez.  All I can say (I know, again and again), the scenery was SPECTACULAR, AWESOME, BREATHTAKING, and very emotional for me!

So this blog and the next will be picture intensive.  

Enjoy.

The mountains, the trees and the rivers:

Spectacular, isn't it!

Yes, we did have bumpy and dippy roads.  Some areas were not good BUT this was a piece of cake compared to what we did previously on this trip:

The St. Elias Mountain Range - it looks like a picture, doesn't it?!:

One of our stops:

Many trees:

WOW!:

This is the Subauroral  Geophysical Observatory in Gakona: 

I put this in here because this is a really interesting program being done by the University of Alaska.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program

We were going to camp at Dry Creek State Recreation Area but as we approached, the gates were closed.  So we went on to Glennallen where we stopped for fuel and lunch.  I made a stop in the local Safeway but, WOW, the prices were much too high.

We decided to continue our journey south and check out other places to stay.  That journey continues in Part Two.

August 17, 2009 – Travel Day

Before I talk about today, I missed telling you that yesterday, 16th, was our Elliot’s birthday – he is 17 years old (well over 100 in human years) and still going strong – :-))  I can tell you that he celebrated his birthday doing what he does best – sleeping – :-))

                        

Today we left Palmer and made our way east.

Scenes from the Glenn Highway:

 

Did you notice the leaves changing – fall is here!

The Matanuska River Valley and Glacier:

 

We saw this strange glow in the sky twice today – look closely at the photos and you will see what looks like a rainbow (hmmm, maybe this was the end of the rainbow):

The Glenn Highway ends in Glennallen.  From there we took the Richardson Highway north to the Tok Cutoff.  Some scenes from the Tok Cutoff:

 

We had rain off and on today – as you can see from the clouds.  We are camped at Porcupine Creek State Park – near Slana, AK. Our site:

Porcupine Creek:

We were able to have a campfire tonight before the rain started again.

Stats:

Miles Traveled: 237 miles

Routes Traveled:

Alaska: Bogard Road; Trunk Road; Palmer-Wasilla Highway; AK-1 (Glenn Highway, Richardson Highway (AK4/AK1), Tok Cutoff)

August 23, 2007 – Tok Cutoff and the Wrangell Mountains

The mountains were out!!!

And the clouds are rolling in...

These are the Wrangell Mountains that are in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This is the largest US national park and includes nine of the sixteen highest peaks in the US. They are covered year round with snow and like the other mountain ranges in Alaska, they create their own weather.

We were so excited to see them before the clouds covered them.

We made a stop at the Visitor Center for the National Park – lots of information about the park itself and its history.

Our travels continued on the Tok Cutoff and we crossed the foothills of the Alaskan Range:

In November 2002, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in North America was in this area. It created 12’ deep holes in this road. Can you imagine driving along and the road just opening up???

We did see another bear today plus a fox with a kill... Sorry, no pictures...

We made it into Tok and have now completed our circle of Alaska. We don’t want to leave!!!

We are staying at the Tok River State Recreation Site and will be in this area for a few days. I have made reservations for a flight trip on Monday. We will go on the mail run to Chisana in the Wrangell Mountains - isn’t that great!!

We are also planning to do the final preps before we head down thru Canada.

I did a quick trip to the visitor center and met Jeanie who remembered me. She was one of the entertainers at Sourdough Campground when we were here before. She told me they are having a final party on Saturday with entertainment, native dance, contests, food, crafts, etc. So we will be moving to Sourdough on Saturday.


Miles Traveled: 180
Routes Traveled:
Alaska: AK-10 (Edgerton Highway); AK-4 (Richardson Highway); AK-1 (Glenn Highway); AK-1 (Tok Cutoff)