On to Anchorage

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I got up fairly early and was treated to fog wisping about on the surface of the lake. It was quite beautiful. I felt lucky, even though it wasn't what I had thought it would be when the guy in the state park the day before had told me about it. Nevertheless I felt quite well-rested, all things considered. My back was rather unforgiving though.



I got up and went into town to try to find some place that would have breakfast. I couldn't find anything obvious. I was really wanting to just get out of town. So I started out. Then I saw a Safeway. I went in to see if they had anything breakfast-like. They didn't have much, not even muffins. I was disappointed, but I got some apples and chocolate, to call breakfast. Then I left Valdez behind.



This time the road construction caused about a 30 minute delay. I seemed to have a knack for arriving at the stop and wait point just after the pilot car had left. It seemed to have happened again, although I didn't see it just pulling out this time. (I had seen the last of the cars going around the corner, having just left, the night before. Annoying.) But I got through the area again and headed up the pass.



I stopped at the glacier after taking a few more photos at a scenic view point. It wasn't quite a walk right up to the glacier, but the boardwalk was pretty close to it. It wasn't very exciting though. The man in the state park the day before had told me that he had walked right up to it, chipped off a bit, and put it in his cooler, where it had taken a week to melt. (I couldn't believe it when he told me that, right after calling himself a conservation officer for the state park system. That's not conservation!!!) There was certainly no encouragement at the view point for getting that close to the glacier, although there wasn't much in the way of discouragement either. There were just a couple of signs warning of a danger in being so close to an active glacier.



So after the diversion to Valdez, I had seen an uninteresting glacier, the amazing waterfalls had been in the construction zone and therefore not easily viewed and photographed, and Valdez itself had been boring. The scenery was nice, but I wouldn't recommend that particular side trip to anyone.



I passed the turn-off to the national park without too much hesitation, and I arrived back at the highway to Anchorage shortly before noon. I turned and began once again on the original path I had set myself. It had been a rather discouraging detour.



The day before the woman in the visitor's centre had told me that I could come back from seeing the fishwheels and then stay up the road a bit at a place called Lake Louise. Well, with a name like that I was going to have to check it out, what with out own Lake Louise in Alberta.



I thought I had passed the turnoff for the lake at first, but I didn't really it was so far past Glennallen. Just as I was giving up on the idea of seeing the lake, I came to a sign for the road to the lake. Cool.



I turned off the highway and onto the access road for Lake Louise. And I was immediately confronted with a most amazing sight. Across the valley, there was an intersecting valley with glaciers and a glacier lake at the bottom. It was quite stunning actually. I didn't stop just then to take a photo, but I resolved to stop on my way back to the highway.



At Lake Louise, there was nothing special. It wasn't really worth the trip out there, but it would have been a much place to camp than where I stopped in Valdez. Oh well. And the lake isn't nearly as nice the Alberta's Lake Louise, although it did look like a nice place to enjoy boating or fishing, if that's the kind of thing one likes doing.



So I headed back to the highway and stopped to have a view of the glacier and lake. It turned out to be somewhat difficult. There were a few gaps in the trees along the road, but no actual viewing areas. Finally I found a spot with a hill on one side of the road. I scrambled up the slope and got a clear view. It was spectacular, especially with the sky cleared over the spot.



Then I had the amazement of getting to the highway and realizing there was no viewing area along the highway either. Nobody who was passing along the highway would even really see it from the highway as they were driving. There were too many trees. Alaska's idea of what should be seen seems a bit skewed.



I continued my way along the chain of mountains to the south (or what I took to be south; the sun makes direction a bit weird up here), following them towards Anchorage. I had plenty of time. Then I entered a valley that bore all the signatures of being a glacier carved valley. Low and behold, I found a rather interesting glacier, the Matanuska Glacier, about midway along the valley. There were viewing points all over (Alaska got this part right about scenic viewpoints), and it was rather dramatic scenery. Even the glacier itself looked to be quite interesting. I would have liked to get up close to it. However...



It appears that there are interesting land rights in Alaska. The land all along the highway was owned. And it was between the highway and the glacier. So the only way to access a spot close to the glacier was to go across someone's land. And some enterprising souls had decided to allow people to cross. For a fee. Then, once at the glacier, one could take a tour of the glacier, even getting up on it. As far as I am concerned, those people are idiots. They are making people pay twice to explore the glacier. They are holding the gatekey and then someone else offers a tour. I don't know how many people there are like me, but I balk at paying twice for something, and I certainly will not pay someone for access to a natural phenomena. I am sure there are plenty of people who do pay, but there must be more like me who won't. If they were smart, they would make an agreement with the company providing the tour for road maintenance and some kind of payment for people accessing the glacier, but they are quite stupid, in my humble opinion, for making people pay to use their road.



So I went back up to the highway and visited the numerous viewpoints along the way to look at the glacier. So there.



But each time I stopped, I ended up being a bit later and a bit later. By the time I reached Palmer, still about 45 minutes from Anchorage, I was hungry. I stopped and got something to each, and was then a little later getting into Anchorage. So I got to a campground, on the Friday evening of what looks to be a great weekend at well after the time when many people have already gotten off work and gone camping. The third campground I tried finally had a spot I could use, and it's right downtown in Anchorage. Not to worry though, as I have never been here before, so it doesn't really matter to me.

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Photos

Mist on the Lake
The little lake near Valdez, where I spent the night, was covered in drifting mist in the morning.

Glacier
Just off the highway leading into and out of Valdez was a rather nice glacier. You can drive right up to it and have a look.

An Amazing View
The road leading to Lake Louise allowed this spectacular view of a glacier and lake in the distance. It wasn't visible from the main road, however, and I felt sorry for all those who would never see it.

Lake Louise
It isn't anywhere near as picturesque as Alberta's Lake Louise.

Matanuska Glacier
Matanuska Glacier is one of many, many glaciers that flow down the mountains along the highway in Alaska. But if you want to go and walk around on it, you have to pay the foolish people who are charging a toll on their private road. I didn't.

Anchorage Sunset
From a viewing platform above the Anchroage harbour, the sunset was quite spectacular. It was even possible to see Denali off the to the right.