The sun glistening on Valdez Glacier with fish jumping in the foreground...
It was 9:40 when we left Allison Point and headed back to the Richardson Highway and the return drive north. The Lowe River...
Back through Keystone Canyon and another look at Bridal Veil Falls...
More stunning scenery...Tiekel River...
Oil pipeline runs 800 miles to Valdez...
There was a water tanker spraying the road with water...great, so much for our clean truck...
...then a little dust...
We had just gotten back onto pavement when we came across some bridge repair...
Chugach Mountains...
Sheep Mountain Lodge...
Staging area for rafters...
Tail end of the Matanuska Glacier...there was no sign for the viewpoint so we blew past it and missed getting a photo of this awesome looking mountain and glacier...
Matanuska River...
At this point, the Milepost book states..."CAUTION: Narrow, winding road westbound next 25 miles; no passing lanes, very few turnouts, 7 percent grades, slow for 35 mph curves..." (yikes!)
..."soft dirt shoulder to south with steep drop-offs and no guardrails"...glad we are on the north side! Beautiful view of Long Lake...
Another stint of road work...
River rafters...
Kings River...
Stunning views over Matanuska River...
We'll check out Palmer tomorrow and then likely continue onto Anchorage after...we'll see...can't plan too far in advance!
It seems like a continuous stream of tourist heading to Alaska, as well, as several caravans. Is it crowded?
ReplyDeleteWe saw two caravans back in Dawson Creek, BC and there was one here in Palmer but that's it. The campgrounds don't seem overly busy...perhaps they will be more so as we head further down the Kenai Peninsula. Advice we have received from others is to arrive early in campgrounds. But, I'd say so far it doesn't seem overly crowded at all.
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