North to Alaska- Day 5

Since we were already at Glennallen and we told the Nelson we would be in Anchorage in the evening time we decided to go see some sights and then go to Anchorage. We had our usual grocery store breakfast and then got on the Richardson Highway and headed south to Valdez. We filled up ($4.80 a gallon) and then were off. We kept seeing sights and would say we'll take a picture of that on our way back. We saw some moose. We also saw some great mountain scenes along the road.

 

The road to Valdez is through valley passes and then it climbs over Thompson Pass.

At the top of the pass is Worthington Glacier which you can see from the road.











The snow was still deep here as this picture shows. We then dropped down from the pass.

There was a canyon we went through which reminded us of Ogden Canyon. There were waterfalls all over the canyon walls.
 

Finally we reached Valdez after two hours of driving. It is a very small town that is on an ocean inlet arm. The water and the mountains made for a gorgeous setting.

We then headed back the same way since we were at the end of the road.















On the way back we came across a wolverine crossing the road. it was fast but Maddie got a picture of it before it went into the trees.  We got to a lake that looks over to Wrangell National Park and the mountains of the park. This is the view Maddie has from the lodge each day. Looking at the peaks of Mt Drum, Mt Wrangell and Mt Blackburn. We drove down into Copper Center so Maddie could take some pictures of some of the run down buildings. There is a wooden historic hotel in town built in the early 1900's as part of the way stations along the Richardson Highway which was the first road in Alaska that lead from Valdez to Fairbanks during the gold rush. It was only three days after we drove by the historic building that it caught fire early Sunday morning and burned down. Mt Wrangell is at 14,163 feet and Mt Blackburn is at 16,390 feet. To get an idea though of how tall they are tough is it is like looking at Ben Lomand stacked on itself two to three times.

We then reached the intersection and headed west to Anchorage. On our way we drove passed the Matanuska Glacier. We could see the blue color of the ice in the glacier.

 We continued on and stopped to get a snack. The place we stopped at had a turkey alarm system. A pet turkey watched the front door and gobbled at anyone who was entering. There is no way anyone could sneak into the store.

We finally made it to Eagle River near Anchorage where the Nelsons were. This is Jan's parents who are on a mission there. As we got on the freeway, the first we had seen for days, there was a sign saying watch for moose, 423 killed so far this year. No sooner were we on the freeway but we saw a moose. We made it to the Nelson's apartment after traveling 3,317 miles.

They took us out to dinner and then we went sight seeing. Remember this is at 8 at night during the middle of May. We went to look out over the area then we went to a place called the Nature Park. We did a tour of the Ft Richardson/ Elmendorf military base because they have base passes and work with military families. 

We went through downtown Anchorage.












Near the end of the day, 10 at night we went by the Anchorage Temple. The first counselor of the temple presidency was looking up and he was kind enough to take us on a tour of the grounds and show us some unique design features. We then returned to the Nelson's apartment to go to sleep.