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Published: June 30th 2013
Leaving Valdez
Gorgeous scenery!Another outstanding breakfast at Rose's by the Sea B&B to start this day. Since the drive to Tok is just under five hours and my only activity today, I take my time packing up and then I start doing some blogging catch-up in the common living room area. Rose and I end up engaging in a thought-filled, sharing conversation about the life curves that can sometimes turn us in a totally different direction than one would expect. She has such unique experiences; we make an easy connection that actually becomes a couple hours’ worth of dialog, some causing pooled laughter and others touching souls…so much for getting any blogging done. I can't regret that time because this is the kind of interchange I so wanted to have in Alaska - not just travel here but meet and get to know some of the people. We had a delightful visit and before I know it, I'm running late...again! I bid Rose a fond farewell and begin my trek from Valdez to Tok.
Good news is the weather has been clearing so the drive is even more extraordinary than coming in. I always think I have enough time but then there are
the roadside stops, the views for which I just have to pull over, and then the off roads that just call me to investigate. First, I have to stop at the old town site that was decimated by the 1964 earthquake and moved to its current location just four miles away but deemed safer should another earthquake hit. Here are some fun and/or interesting Valdez facts:
• Original town of Valdez existed from 1898 to 1967 and it was "Mile 0" of Alaska's first highway - the Richardson Highway.
• Richardson Highway was originally built by the U.S. Army soldiers of Fort Liscum in 1899. It became a major transportation route for supplies and people traveling between coastal Valdez and northern communities.
• Old Town Valdez thrived because of its shipping and transportation industries. It may have disappeared altogether like many other gold-rush era boomtowns if the highway hadn't been built.
• The first stampeders to try the Valdez Glacier trail arrived by ship at the head of Port Valdez in late 1897. They unloaded and made camp in the snow at the mouth of Glacier Creek. An estimated 4,000 people passed through Valdez during the gold rush. Most stayed a week
while moving supplies to the foot of the glacier five miles away and most gold rushers were unprepared for the grueling climb.
• It generally took two months to haul their gear to the Pass. One man is quoted as saying "It was a wonderful sight to stand on the summit of that glacier 5,000 ft above the sea and look back eighteen miles to the coast and see the black streak of humanity winding its way over the snow and ice like a huge snake."
• Painful snow blindness caused by sunlight reflecting off snow and ice could disable a climber for days (remember the guide who wouldn't let me take and keep my prescription sunglasses off during the glacier trek I did for fear of me getting snow blinded? – it’s real). Blizzards could bring travel to a standstill. One raged for five days burying gold rushers under seven feet of new snow with twelve foot drifts! Avalanches followed burying camps and killing at least two people. After one, a dog named Jack survived eight days buried in the snow!
• The largest earthquake to ever hit North America struck Alaska in 1964 - Good Friday to be exact. U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers condemned the town site afterwards. All living there at the time were given two years to pick up the pieces left and move four miles away to a newly created town. Approximately 50 buildings were moved by owners to the new town.
• The Post Office was dedicated in 1962 so was quite new when the earthquake hit leaving little of the Post Office (see pictures). Population in the early 60's was about 600-700.
I leave the old town site and just as I think I'm going to start making time, I notice this little gravel road turnoff which is a remnant of the Gold Rush trail taken way back in late 1800's/early 1900's. How can one pass such a road by? I couldn't! It was a very quiet road with space only for one car for sure and yet I kept going. The deeper I went, the more dense the forest. All the mountains disappeared because of immense trees lining the road - it was actually more like a path. But there were these little creeks running through and even an ancient picnic type area; I just kept creeping along as it turned and
climbed. A big bunny even stopped to say 'hi' though it was gone before I could get a picture. At one point, I could quite literally see nothing but trees ahead, behind, and to each side. Then it cleared enough for me to see a parked car a ways ahead. My humanity struck as I started recalling friend warnings about criminals hiding out in deserted areas of Alaska and my imagination got carried away thinking I could be driving into such an area. No logic seemed to quiet my growing angst so with that and knowing how much later I am making myself, I carefully turn the car around, avoiding trees and ditches. It is amazing to think that years and years ago, people walked this route in freezing temperatures and many feet of snow to claim gold. Guess I wouldn’t have made it as a gold rusher.
I get to the highway feeling like I can really make some time up and then I come to Keystone Canyon – that area enveloped by clouds, fog, and drenching rain as I came in. It is clearer today, making it so much more grandiose. Bridal Veil Falls, Horsetail Falls, unnamed
falls, I not only pull over but actually stop and exit the car. Water is clamoring down from high snow-capped mountains, crashing along the cliff sides, hurtling to the swollen creek or river lining the road. It is thunderous, the noise bouncing off of the cliffs on the other side of the highway. Some crash directly from the top of the cliff while others seem to layer against rock outcroppings to soften the blow. It is truly spectacular to the point I am frozen in time and place, unable to move in fear of disturbing nature’s balance. There are no words to describe the sensory overload encapsulated in these moments. These are the water falls they spoke of being climbed in winter after they turn to ice. I imagine the incredible waterfalls frozen with ice climbers grappling to make the climb. It is difficult to conceive and find myself wanting to return in winter to witness it firsthand. A passing car with friendly waves from passengers releases me from the frozen state of mind and I realize I have been standing or strolling for at least a half an hour already. I go to the car and am still mesmerized
by the magnitude of what I am observing. Eventually I know I must continue. Reluctantly, I pull back on to the highway knowing this is one place, one time, that I will be able to recall in the future by simply closing my eyes and willing the memory to return. The sounds, the sites are forever imprinted on my mind and heart, essentially to my very soul.
I don’t get very far before I am stopping for another roadside spectacle - an old railroad tunnel. I am baffled by the fact it was hand cut through massive rock in what I would think was pretty unstable at the time (see pictures). There were nine railroad companies fighting to get the route from the coast (Valdez) through Keystone Canyon to Copper Country. Then I read that it was never finished due to a feud and eventual gunfight that stopped all progress. It is the only local remnant of the railroad era in this part of Alaska. There is a notation in the Milepost Guide that you can walk in the tunnel but as I look at how wet and rocky it is, I decide looking through it satisfies my curiosity
and still gives me that ambiance of being right where history was made. There is also notation of a Horse and Sled Trail used in the early days on the opposite far side of the road. It was only wide enough for two horses abreast. It was used until 1945. 200 feet above that is the old goat trail. I cannot pick these trails out with any certainty. Suffice it to say, it would have been a treacherous trail in good weather. To think they travelled it in ice and snow is mind boggling.
The pictures show the next miles driven better than I can describe though not even close to reflecting the majesty of driving through the area. It just reminds me of how little my one person is to this massive world. Thompson Pass (elev. 2,678ft) is astounding with plenty of alpine views. Thompson Pass is infamous for snowfalls that can measure 5 feet in one day and 81feet in a year. A record 62 inches of snow fell in one 24-hr period (December 1955). Snow poles along the highway mark the road edge for snow plows. You’ll see a historical picture I included of the line
Mmm...where does this little road go?
You know what they say about curiosity of folks going through the Pass with horse drawn sleds. Unbelievable!!
I begin to see Worthington Glacier views as I proceed along the Richardson Highway. It is a National Natural Landmark so have to stop. Plus, I was told by locals I had to make this stop. It is drizzling, damp, and quite chilly but just can’t miss out on the walk to this glacier. The glacier heads on Girls Mountain (elev. 6,134ft) and is a 5,744 acre valley glacier. Think about that – 5,744 acres of glacier!! There is a huge interpretive sign area with history and explanation of glaciers that is too interesting to pass by. I read most all and now I will not retain it but powerful learning at the time. I eventually traverse the paved path to the glacier viewpoints. Worthington Glacier is actively moving and as one of the most accessible glaciers in Alaska, it is part of an ongoing study funded by the National Science Foundation and a collaborative effort among researchers at the University of Wyoming and University of Colorado to study ice flow dynamics as they relate to climate change. By comparing movement at Worthington with numerical models for glacier
Quaint little creek
Trickling water the only sound flow, scientists hope to answer important questions about the future of climate change. Worthington Glacier is moving downhill by sliding at its base and flowing above. The ice above moves faster because it’s riding on the motion of the ice below. The massive weight causes the ice crystals down deep to stretch, or deform, allowing crystals above to flow over them. It’s much easier to understand the explanations when you’re standing there looking at it and able to place the pictures they have to what is front of you. I am always amazed at the signs marking where the glacier was years back. Seeing them and seeing the actual glaciers now, I can better understand the concerns about retreating glaciers and global warming. I am certainly no expert but reading and seeing, it’s just logical that so much ice diminishing simply must have a longer term impact. I have passed on some of the glacier type info via pictures of the displays.
I head back to the highway and still pause roadside periodically to view and take pictures of this ominous glacier. It is like a picture implanted within a picture of a mountain and the reality of it
not being a picture at all is almost inconceivable. I have gone only 28 miles from Valdez and work to push myself onward. There is so much I could explain about the drive. It is an ear-popping day as I traverse the constant ups and downs. A book could be written (and perhaps already has been) about just this area of Alaska. Every turn, every ascent and descent, every new mile covered displays a myriad of vivid pictorials in spite of little sun along the way. I don’t take as many pictures as I might have because of the dreary weather. I pass the road taken days ago into Chitina and the 65 mile gravel road to McCarthy/Kennicott and my mind is flooded with memories. I try not to stop as I get to Copper Center or going through Copper Country but could not resist some of the breathtaking pictures. At one point with the wayside signs, I try to identify exactly where Mt. Wrangell (14,163ft), Mt. Zanetti (13,009ft), and Mt Blackburn (16,390ft) are on the horizon. I think I figured it out but who knows. Mt. Wrangell is an active volcano and on a clear, calm day, a steam
Water Falls
Might have been the one called Horse Tail Falls plume can sometimes be seen rising from its summit. It is neither clear nor calm so I quickly give up trying to see any sign of the volcano itself. Mt. Wrangell itself was formed 200,000 to 600,000 years ago from oozing lava flows building layer upon layer. Others of the Chugach Mountains were formed nearly five million years ago – I can’t even take that number in but obviously the landscape continues to evolve over time. The native people (the Ahtna) have two names for Mt. Wrangell – K’elt’aeni which means “the one who controls the weather,” and Uk’eledi, “the one with smoke on it.” Lake Atna sits in front of the mountain view, formed when Ice Age glaciers block the flow of an ancestral Copper River. As glaciers held the valley in their icy grip, melt waters rose to become a vast late. Only the valley’s ring of mountain tops and jagged peaks poked above its vast, frigid waters (taken from one of the roadside signs). 58,000 years ago, I’d be standing 1,500 feet underwater! It is difficult to fathom.
I grudgingly continue, committing to not stopping much along the Tok Cutoff Highway and for the most part
succeed especially since the weather is deteriorating again. I get a glimpse of an almost rainbow along the way. It never actually made it to a full rainbow but gorgeous nonetheless. I call ahead to let Caribou Cabins know I am running late and assure late check-in will still work. They already figured I’d run late from when they spoke with me about my route, etc. I think I am going to like these people!
I am happy when I get to Caribou Cabins. I get settled, relax a little on the front porch of my cabin, have some microwaved tomato soup (just right for tonight) and though it is still light, I know I am done. It has been an overwhelming day. Only 254 miles (give or take) but I feel emotionally and spiritually overstimulated by all the views and the incredible expanse of wilderness. I am mentally exhausted from all the history taken in. I didn’t do that much physically today other than driving but still, my body protests. Thank heaven tomorrow is a down day. Lights out…God Bless from Tok, Alaska.
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