Alaska: Destination, Valdez --- Longest Day Writeoff
Written: Jun 20 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: beautiful, peaceful, rugged and massive
Cons: bumpy roads, but we don't have to worry about them in this opinion.
The Bottom Line: It's time to slow down and look at what's around you. And there's plenty of daylight to do it by.
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| Caspian's Full Review: Alaska |
It is June 21, the First Day of Summer. It also happens to be the longest day (as in day v. night) of the year, which is a pretty major event for us here in Alaska. Almost to religious proportions. After all, just days ago we managed to finally shake off the last vestiges of winter, and even so, there is still snow to be found in shadowy crevices not far from home. The days have been rapidly getting longer, then of a sudden it just kind of screeches to a halt and it's the longest day of the year, and from here on we hopelessly hurtle headlong toward cold dark days where Winter awaits impatiently and lustily to sink its icy fangs into our shivering bodies trying to suck all the warmth out of us that we managed to collect on the few warm days surrounding the Longest Day of the Year, June 21! (Whew!! That was a long sentence, but I guess that comes with joining the Longest Writeoff) I've invited you all to come to Alaska this summer to spend the longest day with us.
I must extend my apologies because, now that you are coming, I really don't have much prepared for you. I don't have an itinerary all set up for you. Alaska is an enormous place, almost a continent on it's own. Fortunately, there aren't too many roads, and most of Alaska is impenetrable wilderness, so there aren't too many places to go.
There's just one particular destination I have in mind for you, and I will now proceed to give you a detailed review on how to get there. Trust me, it's not just simply a matter of driving there.
Destination: VALDEZ
Since there are two commonly used routes in getting to Alaska, (discounting the cruise ships, of course)(all cruise ships are is paying a bunch of money to have someone else choose your hours of travel, when you stop and when you go etc.. etc..) I will divide you into "Group One" (the Air-Way group) and "Group Two" (the Long-Road way group) and deal with you separately for just a bit.
"Group One"
You are the Get-here-quick ones. You flew up to Anchorage a few days ago and rented an SUV. You've already done some sightseeing around Anchorage. Down the Seward Hwy to Portage Glacier. Hopefully you weren't too disappointed with the glacier, but at least the boat ride through all the "icebergs" to get to the glacier should have been exciting. Yesterday's trip to the zoo was fun too.
You got up very early this morning and left Anchorage at 6:00 a.m. After all, you have a Long Day ahead of you.
Valdez is 295 miles away.
Lets see...... @ 65mph you'll be in Valdez by 10:30? Not-so-fast! For one thing, there's BUMPS along the way.
Oh, yes, the BUMPS
If you notice, as you leave Anchorage there are occasionally those yellow diamond-shaped warning signs with the word BUMP letting you know there may be some discomfort ahead unless you slow down. You will wonder where the bump is, because you won't feel anything. Once you get through Palmer (45 miles outside Anchorage) it's a different story. The road is nothing more than a succession of the "bumps" heralded just outside Anchorage. You will see a few BUMP signs near the real neck-jerkers. The further you go you will learn to slow down when you see tiny red flags on the edge of the road. They are there because a "BUMP" or "DIP" sign is not appropriate. What's ahead is basically a drop-off.
From Palmer to Glennallen
Leaving Palmer, you will shortly find yourself in the mountains. You will begin seeing what our part of Alaska looks like: lots of steep mountains, small turbulent rushing rivers, narrow winding roads.
About 45 minutes of driving will bring you within sight of the Great Matanuska Glacier. It is an interesting glacier to look at because, unlike most other glaciers around which hang off the side of a mountain, this one seems stuck between mountains and stretches for miles on what should just be the riverbed.
Before you get past Matanuska Glacier you will go over Caribou Creek. It's in the middle of the mountains, and to get across, the road had to be built like a horse-shoe about a mile long on each side. Many an exciting edge-of-your-seat tale can an Alaskan tell about traversing that short stretch of road in the wintertime. More than a few vehicles haven't managed to make the turn. The bridge rests about 100 feet above the creek.
Five miles past Caribou you can breathe easier, for you made it through the mountains. Another 15 minutes of travel will bring you to Eureka Lodge where the friendly folks there provide a nice rest stop and feed you anything you want.
You now have about 50 miles left to reach Glennallen. You can travel at a pretty good clip (55mph between the bumps) and get there in about an hour. You may get lucky and see a moose. If you do, slow waaaaayyy down because moose tend to wait till you're very close and then lumber across in front of you. Many a moose walks around with several small cars plastered to their flanks like bugs on a windshield.
Glennallen
Glennallen doesn't seem like much at first site, but it is a vibrant little 'hometown' to at least 3000 people scattered it a 100-mile radius. It boasts several restaurants, a hotel, a couple of grocery stores and several gift shops as well as a couple of hardware stores and the hospital to which you will be taken should you try petting a moose or other such wildlife. Mile 188 is the end of the highway (Glenn Hwy). Here it joins the Richardson Hwy. You will be turning right to go to Valdez. But first stop on your left at the Hub Maxi Mart, get some snacks and walk across the parking lot to the Visitors Center where you can find all the info you need about traveling in Alaska and what places to go.
And here we join our other group:
Group Two
You have been traveling up the Alcan Hwy for many days now, so you are tired of driving. You probably spent the night at or near Tok. You also got up early this morning and started driving your motorhome up to the Richardson Hwy and toward Glennallen.
About mile 115 on the Richardson is Glennallen. You may as well stop at the Visitors Center on the right too, and the Hub Maxi Mart and get some fuel and a few snacks because the next stop is Valdez.
To Valdez
This is the best part of todays trip. It is a good idea to go slow (even though we hate you tourists for clogging up our roads and driving so slow, but forget about us locals for now, you're here to have fun and to spend money on us so we can live here in the first place!:)
It's 115 to Valdez from Glennallen. As you drive, you will see the massive Wrangell Mountains on your left. There's Mt. Sanford, Mt. Drum, Mt. Wrangell (an active volcano, you can sometimes see a small plume of "smoke" coming out the top) and last there's Mt. Blackburn. If you take a short excursion on the Edgerton Cutoff at mile 83 and go about 13 miles (that's where I live) you will get an awesome view of the 4 mountains all lined up next to each other like formidable statues of ancient kings. Opposite the Wrangell Mountains are the lesser but still beautiful Chugiach Mountains. (hmmm... not sure I spelled that right.)
When you all get to Mile 40 it's really time to slow down. For one thing, there's a HUGE unmarked bump between mile 40 and 39 (I traveled that road about 20 times this year with truckloads of plants so I know about the bumps) but also, when you get to mile 38 you will begin to see the first signs of water, lots of water, that are characteristic of Valdez. You are again traveling among the mountains, and all the snow melting off the mountains creates many many streams that come catapulting off the mountains.
A few more miles along you will see Worthington Glacier. It's very close to the road, so you can stop for a bit and take pictures, and at your own risk you can even go right up to the glacier if you wish, or climb up the mountainside next to it and get a good view of the valley below. This is a good place for you all to stop and spend an hour or so. Worthington is a receding glacier. When I first moved up here, the huge rock that now splits the glacier in two at the bottom was not visible. There's a small lake at the base of the glacier, and a powerful stream that flows into the Tsaina River.
Tsaina River, Lowe River
The Tsaina River is kind of neat to me because I know where it begins. You will be following it "upriver" as you go along. At about Mile 24 you will get to the top of Thompson Pass. Today is a very sunny day, so you will be able to see miles and miles of mountains, and far below, the road that disappears into Keystone Canyon.
At the very top of Thompson Pass there is a sign that tells you the elevation: 2678 ft. About 20 feet from where the sign is, is the begining of Tsaina and Lowe Rivers. There are tons upon tons of snow on the Pass, and right at that spot, a drop of water has the choise of joining either river. If it chooses to go south, it will go tumbling down steep mountain sides to join the Lowe River far below, through Keystone Canyon, and into Prince William Sound and the sea a few miles away. If it chooses to dribble the other way, it will be the start of the Tsaina River, and travel for hundreds of miles where it merges with the Tiekel River, later to join the great Copper River and finally into the sea at Cordova.
Keystone Canyon
When you are all done taking pictures and enjoying the view high atop Thompson Pass, you can make your way down the steep 4-mile long hill to the bottom and go into Keystone Canyon. This is a good place to spend a long time. The canyon is about 2 miles long, and one of the most beautiful places on earth. The walls of stone rise vertically hundreds of feet above the road which winds along following the path of the Lowe River. You will cross the river 3 times, and most any day of the summer you will see people rafting or kayaking down the river. There is so much water trying to get off the mountains and into the river, that it flows anywhere and everywhere it can. The rock walls glisten like diamonds when the sun is high in the sky and there are hundreds of streams rushing down ravines or splashing off ledges like showers.
Halfway through the Canyon there are Bridal Veil Falls. A quick search on the net told me that the name is certainly not unique to these falls. There must be a dozen other falls in the U.S. named Bridal Veil. The waterfall, flowing at its fullest this time of year, comes crashing over 800 feet straight down. There is a large pull-off where you can park and enjoy the water and take pictures. The road and the river are between you and the waterfall, but the force of the fall keeps a mist of water in the air that reaches where you are and keeps the road constantly. There are actually two falls side by side. One must be the Bride and the smaller one must be the Maid of Honor.
Around the corner awaits the groom, waiting for its bride that will never come. A smaller, shorter waterfall, but still very impressive is Horsetail Falls. Another 1/2 mile will take you out of the Canyon and back into the full sunlight. Now it's only about 14 miles into Valdez.
Valdez
Valdez has many points of interest, too many to type here. Just to mention a few: It's the northernmost ice-free port in the winter, the terminal for the Oil Pipeline, home to the infamous oil spill of '89, rebuilt after the 1964 earthquake, and is sometimes called the Little Switzerland of the U.S. because of the many snowcapped mountains around it.
It's sometime after noon now that you are finally here in Valdez. You have plenty of time to walk around the town, visit the museum, maybe go back to Keystone and raft down the river, go fishing on a charter boat, or have a picnic lunch near the harbor. Hopefully you bought plenty of film before coming here because there are plenty of things to snap at. :)
Tonight after dinner and getting a room in one of the hundreds of bed & breakfast places or the numerous motels, or in the case of our Motor home group (Group 2) getting a nice parking space in an RV Park, you can take a leisurely walk along the quiet streets of Valdez. Late at night the air is very warm, and the seasalt air coming in a gentle breeze from the Sound makes for a very pleasant, peaceful evening. Around 11:30 you can begin seeing the slow sunset, the colors changing from light yellow to deep orange/red as the sun sinks deeper into the bay.
Now you can go to bed, happy to have spent the longest day of the year here with us in this beautiful land
This review is part of the Summer Solstice Write-Off hosted by none other than wovengold to celebrate the long days of summer. Pleeeeeaase take a few minutes to check out the scribblings (much shorter than mine, I'm sure) of:
amycamus
art_ana
BeeCharmer
bmcnichol
Caspian (wait, you just finished reading mine. :)
eplovejoy
flak-attak
Girl_Goddess
jo.com
jro26
marytara
naphtalia
Pearman
phineaskc
Social14
wardukeky
windfish
wovengold (who hosted it)
Go to
http://wovengold.tripod.com/solstice for links to their write-off submissions. Thanks for reading!
P.S. To see a current webcam photo of Valdez, go to: http://www.alaska.net/~nwsar/data/photo/ and click on any of the three Valdez choises there.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
Caspian
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Member: Ben Hesser
Location: The United States of Alaska
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 16 members
About Me:
Coming soon...........
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