My, we’re traveling a bit faster than we usually do. But, then the goal is to see so much of Alaska that we needn’t come back. It’s a lo-o-o-ng trip up here. We left Palmer and are heading over towards Valdez but first we have a stop in a small town called Kenny Lake. In fact it is called unincorporated and has 341 people but - it has what we need, an electrical hookup in a campground. From there we intend travelling to another small unincorporated town - actually a combination of two towns with a population of 51. These two towns are McCarthy and Kennicott. But, that’s tomorrow’s story. Today’s story is our drive.
The drive goes through some magnificent scenery and here’s a picture of it.
Oops, maybe you noticed that we are driving in rain. Yep, it’s our 8th day of rain and we’re on our way. I can see that the scenery must be amazing and, as much as I might want to see it in brilliant sunshine, there is an other-worldly quality about the scenery in the rain.
One of the stops along the road is at the Matanuska Glacier which has an average of 2 miles wide but, at its end is 4 miles wide. It’s been relative stable for the last 400 years. Since the land next to the glacier is privately owned, it is not possible to get closer than we did unless you pay the fees. But there is a good overlook along the highway and a trail to some closer overlooks.
Along the trail we learned lots about glaciers. Much of this we knew since we walked on one several days ago. But we enjoyed the cute pictures that some one with a sense of humor designed for the signs.
We also learned a lot about aspen trees and how a forest of aspens grows. Here’s the forest we walked through - we learned that all of these trees, but one, is a clone of the first one.
Here’s a picture of what an aspen root system looks like.
We stopped in GlennAllen to buy gas and have a bite to eat (one of my mother’s favrotie phrases: ‘would you like a little bite to eat?’ She’s say this right before she put a 4-course lunch in front of us.) Then we headed southeast towards our next stop in Kenny Lake. but first we stopped in the Wrangell-St. Elias NP Visitor Center. Here we saw a film visited the Native Ahtna Center and then headed into the Visitor Center where we asked a lot of questions about the park and the Kennecott Mine which we wanted to visit tomorrow.
We saw these colored hills in the distance which reminded us of Utah.
A tradition in the Alaska area and along the Alaska Highway in BC is to write in stones on hillsides. We’ve seen a lot but, unless we stopped, my pictures were pretty blurry and difficult to read. Here’s one that is easy to read. You can see that there are others on this hillside, too.
We stopped at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Visitor Center on our way and saw this cool miniature of a fish wheel and a description of how it worked. We’ll see some real ones tomorrow on our way to the National Park.
In the Ahtna Native Center we also saw some marvelous handiwork.
This National Park is the largest one in the US.
Looks like these people are on a long journey.
Then, we headed on down to the campground along this road towards the Wrangell Mountains.
Then there are the little things that you learn along the way. We read today that the guy who invented the jump shot in basketball comes from this ar. Ken Sailors was the College Basketball Player of the Year in 1943 and 1946 and actually played for the Boston Centics among other teams. Prior to his invention, players stopped, grabbed the ball with two hands, swung it down between their knees and then heaved it up over the basket for it to fall in. Clumsy, awkward and it sure held up the play in the game.
good post, thanks for sharing
ReplyDelete