And of course I had to stop at the Three Bears Alaska store in Knik, a combination sporting goods and grocery AND growler bar. The manager of the liquor section hales from North Carolina and has been up here for seven years; her husband 11 years, but they had to take a break so that she could care for her husband's ailing mother. Why are women always expected to be the caregivers for the in-laws? I picked up some reduced pre-made meals and headed on out to Palmer for a tasty hazelnut-flavored cappuccino. I finally drove off from Palmer at noon as the cottonwood seeds were snowing down around me.
I was now driving north on the Glenn Highway, the same route I first drove when driving into Alaska. The highway climbed uphill and then down into Caribou Creek, the first place I stopped to walk the dogs two weeks ago. Then the route climbed up again and then down into the Matanuska river valley and its glacier. It's here at the overview where I stopped to walk the dogs for the first time, taking them on the 1.6-mile walk along the ridge overlooking the glacier. The glacier is accessible, just not from this overlook. I was fine with that, as I had a long day of driving ahead of me. I took this walk slowly, reading all the informational signs about glaciers. This was my last chance to walk before undertaking the long drive to Valdez.
I could have stopped at any of the many lake access trails, but these trails are meant for boats and canoes. There are many small lakes and ponds along the highway, but at the 140 mile mark the land flattens and is covered with scraggly black spruce trees that barely look alive. The road also became frostheaved so I had to slow down to prevent the dogs from going airborne again. How to large trucks and RVs drive on this road?
I past through the small town of Glennallen, a small community ideal for campers and people wanting to take a break from driving. I still had over 150 miles to go to Valdez and was fighting highway hypnosis.
That all changed once I was on the Richardson highway (Alaska 4) heading toward Valdez. I could see the Canadian Rockies to the west and the towering glaciers to my south. This road is also badly frost heaved, and the highway department is trying to improve the road: just north of Worthington Glacier and south for nine miles there is construction to improve the highway. I was stopped for 20 miles near the pass with some of the most spectacular scenery around me. Nevermind that there were signs indicating AVALANCHE DANGER, driving this road with 40 miles to go felt more like a Norwegian fjord: steep lush mountainsides divided by a narrow canyon. I was in Keystone canyon, the same name as the infamous Keystone pipeline.
Worthington Glacier is near the top of the pass, with the state park on the south side with a trail to the top. I will do that tomorrow, weather permitting, as it began to rain hard when I got to the pass. The rain never relented. It was 6:30pm, I was looking forward to a walk, and it was raining. Just my luck again.
The town of Valdez doesn't have much. It's not as touristy as Seward since the oil industry provides the economy. Storage tanks dot the northern edges of town. I found the Shoud Bay trail head right away but didn't hike it due to the rain. Instead I took the dogs on a short 1.4-mile walk to the bay off Homestead Road where I could see tidal waters pushing against river water. Clouds shrouded the peaks around me. I was standing on the shaly banks of Prince William Sound, once a place of a horrific oil spill caused by the oil tanker Exxon Valdez on March 24, 1989. The oil company got off on the environmental damage the 10.8 million gallons of spilled oil it caused, which is why I've boycotted buying gasoline from Exxon ever since. But like that matters. BP has dumped benzene into Lake Michigan, often at toxic levels, and is still making a profit.
I stood on the shore and looked around, gasping at the beauty around me. Steep mountain sides jut right into the bay, with waterfalls gushing from every angle. The terrain looks like a Norwegian fjord. This area should have been a national park or at least a wilderness sanctuary. Instead it's dominated by oil tanks and tankers and oil trucks coming and going into town. If it hadn't been raining I would have hiked a bit of the Shoud trail. I will try that trail in the morning. Hopefully it won't be raining then.
I drove around the small town. The harbor is for small boats only and a few shops edge on the pier. RV parks crowd the northern entrance into town. I found the Safeway and got the dogs and me a dark chicken meat platter on sale. We finished that off while still in the parking lot. A group of teens were speaking Arabic outside the Oaken Keg (liquor store off the grocery store). The rain finally stopped at 11pm.
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