Making the turn

As we leave Valdez, we start the long trek in a more southerly direction. The driving goal over the next few days is to work our way up to Tok, pick up the ALCAN, and head south to Haines.

Coming in and out of Valdez is yet another glorious experience.

 We come through Thompson Pass, which in spite of it's relatively low elevation of 2678 feet, still averages very high snowfall amounts , AND recorded the highest amounts ever for the USA. It snowed 974 inches in the 1952-53 season, and a whopping 62 inches in one 24 hour period in 1955. Glad we don't live there.

  Fireweed is in full bloom.  

 

 We pass Worthington Glacier.  It is 5700 acres in size and has been slowly retreating fo the last 150 years.

 We drive into Copper Canyon, which gold stampeders accessed through a long treacherous trip from Valdez, to find no gold, but lots of copper. Many died along the way. Others later succumbed to scurvy and the harsh winter for which they were ill prepared. We blew through a funky town called Copper Center and over nighted in Chitina,

Both towns are on the edge of Wrangell-St.Elias National Park (the largest US National Park at 13 million acres). Wrangell-St.Elias National park and Canada's Kluane National Park combined is a Unesco world heritage site as the largest contiguous protected land in the world.  

 The road to Chitina went on for 7 miles like this:

 

  

 

  Stampeder shoe - no wonder they froze. 

 

 

 

 We found fish wheels on the edge of the river banks. They catch salmon that are swimming upstream to spawn, then dump them into a holding pen. Subsistence fishermen and Native Alaskans can obtain permits for the wheels. We observed fishermen dip netting (just netting the fish right out of the river), for which they need a special permit. One of them had so many fish he didn't know what to do with them (not really). He peeled off a big filet and gave it to us for dinner. Sweet !!

Back in Yukon Canada, we had a beautiful, for different reasons, drive through a rugged tundra region. The weather was bad, there were no towns, rest stops with interpretive signs, gas stations, or lodges. Just miles and miles of stark tundra shapes. It was great.

 

 We found the most highly photographed church in the Yukon (established in 1954) – a Quonset hut that seats about 35 people.

Passing through Burwash Landing (population 84) and Destruction Bay (population 55), we stayed on the banks of Kluane Lake – the largest lake in the Yukon territory (covering 154 square miles).   

 

The Yukon still had fireweed, a yellow flower, and blooming white grasses along the highway. There are some painting ideas buried in the blurred images that fly by us as we make our way down the road.

Night Night, from our bedroom looking out onto the lake.  Daisy needs a bath.

Next post: Haines, Alaska.