Alaska, Day 1

Green, green everywhere

(set of photos on Flickr is here.)

I know you are all eager waiting for my photos from the trip. So here is the first day, Aug. 17. In fact, I arrived Anchorage at 8:30pm on Aug. 16. When my flight approached the airport, I saw underneath the thick clouds a place so green that I couldn't associate it with the notion of a snow country in winter. The aircraft circled and to close in the airport from over Fire Island, an island with steep cliffs all around, covered by thick woods, in the silt-filled Cook Inlet. In a short distance, a small arc of rainbow appeared opposing the setting sun. That was the first welcome sign Anchorage showed me, only I didn't know that it was going to be the wettest August in many many years. I must have jinxed my luck by pre-posting wishing myself a drier trip.

I woke up to a rainy day, a little unnerving. But I was on vacation! Anchorage is a small city according to my standards. Besides, I was here for the Alaskan wildness. So we set off around 10am after getting the car and some food supply for the road. It rained really hard at times as we were heading north towards Palmer. Our destination today was Valdez, about 300 miles away. We took Highway 1, the Glenn Highway, towards Glennallen. From there we would go south on Highway 4, the Richardson Highway, to Valdez.

After we got into the mountains, the rain let up a little bit. Little by little, we started to see the other side of the river valley. At mile 79, we saw this river (Matanuska River). Notice the silt deposit in the river:


The peak next to the river (notice: it's all green):


At Mile ~100, we first saw the Matanuska Glacier (the source of Matanuska River):

The glacier is 27 miles long, 6 miles wide, and 300 meters deep.

Its close shot:


Peaks in Clouds:


Colorful rocks show their volcanic past:


Yet another glacier: Nelchina


Glennallen is a tiny town. It has two gas stations and a Radioshack on Glenn Hwy. We turned right at the end of the road, and followed the road on Copper River valley.

At Pippin Lake, we could see the distant mountains in east as the Wrangell Mountains (3000 to 5000m above sea level). From afar, they looked small. Notice the white dot on the lake shore. It was a float plane.


We took Highway 10 and drove to Chitina. The view of the Wrangells was spectacular. Chitina was even smaller, compared to Glennallen. The only Bed and Breakfast had this sign out:


The paved road ends in Chitina. We walked over to the other side of the cut-out pass,


and the Copper River and the Mountains appeared in front of us:


Coming back and continuing on Richardson Hwy, we saw yet a third glacier of the day, the Worthington Glacier:

Only later did I learn that it was very easy to approach. I would have hiked over there if I knew this earlier, and if the weather weren't so bad.

The famous Thompson Pass was completely trapped in thick fog. Visibility was probably 10 feet only. We carefully followed the truck ahead. We didn't get to see what I expected to be breathtaking view of the Chugach mountains. But we did see some waterfalls later on:


Then we got to Valdez. We passed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline several times on the Richardson Hwy. Now we saw it ending on the other side of the bay. It is said that daily flow is 1.7 million barrels. I think the flow was stopped right before we started our Alaskan trip up north in the Prudhoe Bay because of corrosion in the pipeline. That's probably why we didn't seen any big ships.

There was road construction close to town. Traffic was reduced to one lane. We experienced our first traffic jam in Alaska.

When we got in town, I found out that I mis-placed the address of the B&B we were going to stay. Luckily I map-memorized its location, and with the help of a GPS, we found L&L's B&B. Laura, the owner, told us that we were lucky because it was one of the best days in weeks, for we could see the mountains across the bay from the house. She also recommended the best seafood/Italian restaurant in town, Mike's Palace. We asked for a key. She said, "We don't lock our door. You know, we are in this part of the town."

Valdez is called "the Switzerland of Alaska". The harbor was very beautiful, in the overcast natural lighting at 9pm.


There we watched fishermen (and a fisherwoman) filleting fish. I marvelled at a flat fish with two eyes on one side, "big fish!" The fisherwoman said, "that one? No, it's a baby halibut. It's only about 25 pounds. It's about $13 per pound."

We watched people dumping the fish debris into the bay, and seagulls eating them. That evening I ordered a baked halibut, and it was delicious.