On the way to Valdez, AK

We left Tok this morning after a good nights rest in a pleasant grove of trees.  We traveled more rough road.  This time so much so that we only made 160 miles and quit after 5 hours of driving.  We are in Glennallen, AD, where the road divides between Valdez and Anchorage.  When we stopped and I started hooking up the utilities, I found that the cable from the coach to the truck that actuates the truck brakes had broken.  So, no brakes on the tow.  That meant a trip to the local hardware store for cable and fittings and a kluge to get it back together.  We'll see how well it works when we leave this morning.

32 wheels! count 'em

For the truck guys:  They are really serious about their trucks up here.   I first noticed that when I was passed by a behemoth with 26 wheels and a trailer longer than the rv.  Then while we were eating dinner in Watson's Lake, these two rigs pulled in and their drivers came in to eat dinner.  I snuck out and took this picture.  Thirty two wheels...wouldn't you like to be a tire store when these guys showed up.   A whole month's sales on one vehicle.

 

Valdez, Alaska.

We made it to Valdez over mostly reasonable roads through more amazing mountains.  The mountain ranges in Alaska seem to run from the center of the state on the Canadian border to the coast north of Anchorage.  There is a second large range that runs up the coast from Vancouver, BC north.  Valdez sits in an inlet off the Prince William sound.  This got to be the only town sitting at sea level with mountains so high that the clouds cover the peaks.  Come to think of it, Vancouver is similar. 

As you go south from Glennallen, you pass alongside the west edge of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  The sign above shows the mountains and here is a picture of Drum Mountain.  I am standing on the west side of the  Copper river valley.   The Copper river you see in the lower right runs along the valley floor at my feet before curving to the east.  (By the way, this is my only moose picture so far.  He's in there if you look really hard.)  This is a very famous salmon fishery and Copper river red salmon are highly prized.  This is the territory of the Ahtna people and are several spots where First Nation people have set up fish wheels  (link will tell you about them.)  I will try to get pictures of the wheels as we visit the river valley later.

We arrived in Valdez after coming over the Richardson pass, another example of how going north really changes the relationship between altitude and the environment in a given area.  The pass is approx. 2600 feet high, but the climate is that of country 12000 feet high in Colorado or New Mexico.  The top of the pass is a splendid view that seemed to take all the traffic into the parking lot just as fast as it arrived.


Panoramic view of Richardson Pass summit

You leave the summit and come down the pass dropping the whole 2600 feet in one long grade.  It's 22 miles from the city limits to the center of town.   Along the way, you are treated to a series of waterfalls such as this one. 















As you reach town, you find an arm of the Prince William Sound with the town nestled in the mountains on the shore.