August 23-28 -- Alaska! (Part 2)

Let's continue from where we left off, shall we? It's the day I left Lake Louise...

Now here's a fine start to the day -- the Talkeetna Mountains, west of Lake Louise, as seen through the Canon 100-400 MK II lens. Alaska's landscape is huge, but not this huge; the foreshortening of objects gets larger as you zoom out with the lens. This was taken at 400mm. Sort of like rear-view mirrors -- Objects Appear Closer Than They Really Are. Still, it's an impressive sight. 

 Back along the Glenn Highway, the scenery gets more dramatic, with open land that stretches for miles to the mountains beyond. I think it's the massive size, more than anything else, that impresses me most about both the Yukon Territory and Alaska. It's huge here!  

A little further down the road is Matanuska Glacier; it's the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States. Notice that I said car; driving down the narrow road to the glacier with a truck and trailer would be a bit of a challenge. Rats! 

I'd read in reviews, and what people had told me, that the RV parks in Anchorage were basically rigs side-by-side, with some parks located in iffy sections of town. So I opted to stay outside of the city at the Eagle River Campground, about 15 miles north of Anchorage, near the town of Eagle River. As I'd driven about 6500 miles so far, under challenging conditions, I wanted to have Tundra go through the 120,000 mile servicing at the Toyota dealership in Anchorage so "he" would be ready for the rest of the journey. Peace of mind while traveling, especially solo, is very important to me, and worth the money. The campground had no hookups, but was worth the $20 a day. And the setting was certainly more scenic than being next to a monster RV in the city. 

After taking Tundra to the dealership and getting the thumbs-up, I was free to explore the area around the Eagle River. The river starts at Eagle Glacier in Chugach State Park;  the campground is also in the park. Canoes and other watercraft use the river, though parts of it are a Category III (difficult). The photo below shows you why -- 

There's a trail, starting from the campground, that goes upriver. I took the canister bear spray with me and hiked for about a mile. (Since I hike solo, I usually whistle to let any bears know I'm around. And since I have chronic sinusitis, I clear my throat, too. Also, I'm always checking the ground for fresh bear scat. You can't be too careful.)  I came upon these colorful mushrooms, which I later discovered, after posting the photo of Facebook, that it's poisonous. Pretty, though! 

After spending 3 days at the campground, I had the propane tanks filled in the town of Eagle River and headed back up the Glenn Highway to Palmer, where I stayed at an RV park with full facilities. I'd camped without hookups for about a week, and my batteries were running low due to the cloudy days -- very little sun means the solar panels can't fully charge the batteries --  so I needed a place with hookups to clean up and recharge -- both me and the batteries. Palmer is in the Matunuska Valley, which was, and still is, a very fertile area with farmland. The Alaska State Fair is held here for 1 week around Labor Day -- and that's when I arrived there. The traffic was backed up for about 2 miles. I eventually made it through, turned off on the road leading to the RV park -- and found out the road where the RV park was located, 0.8 mile further, was closed for construction. Sheesh!  The gal directing traffic gave me directions to get around the construction and arrive at the park, and I thought, "I'm never going to remember all of this! " But it was actually easier than I expected, except for when I mistakenly went down a road without a pilot car, and had to back up when a grader was coming my way. DOH!  Luckily, I didn't get yelled at. And I eventually arrived at the RV park. 

After setting up the chargers to re-charge the batteries, I took a drove the truck down to nearby Matanuska River, and walked around. Everything is larger here than down in the lower 48. 

A glacier in a mountain range, looking to the west -- 

And the sunset that night was spectacular.  It even had this sun dog. 

The next day was one of the highlights of my time in Alaska, the drive along the Fishhook-Willow Road, otherwise known a the Hatcher Pass Road. It goes up to the top of Hatcher Pass at 3,886 feet and the road is about 40 miles long. And mostly unpaved. Here's the paved part on the east side -- 

-- which turns to unpaved about a mile from the pass. 

The marker at Hatcher Pass summit.

And just below the marker, on the west side, is Summit Lake. 

Walking past the summit marker, I saw this Merlin -- 

And an inquisitive Arctic Ground Squirrel.

The scenery west of the summit was gorgeous, with both autumn and summer colors.

Willow Creek runs along the west section of the road. 

I'd been warned about these by friends who've been here. Potholes dot this west section of the Hatcher Pass Road. I had to weave around them to make sure my axles and tires survived. But it wasn't as bad as it looks; I met a motorhome coming up going east!  I was out of the truck on the side of the road, so the lady on the passenger side rolled down the window and we chatted a bit. Her husband in the driver's seat didn't say a word, but that's because her talking more than more up for his silence. Then she mentioned that Denali was "out", and that you could see it from the town of Willow, along the Parks Highway at the west end of the road. Then she said "Yeah, changing the name back to Denali was one of the few good things Obama ever did!" Uh, okay... 

And when I arrived at the west end of the road at Willow -- holy smokes,  she was right ---

That view with the lake was actually about 10 miles north of Willow, as I was looking for a photogenic spot to photograph Denali, formerly Mount McKinley, and the highest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet. Prior to being named Mount McKinley by a prospector in support of presidential candidate William McKinley, who never saw the mountain, most Alaskans had already referred to it as Denali, which means "high" or "tall". Denali was still "out" a day later, when I was driving up the Parks Highway on the way to my next destination --

Here's a closeup of Denali, taken with the 100-400 lens, so once again Objects Appear Closer Than They Really Are, though Denali isn't much less massive than this -- 

After Palmer and Hatcher Pass, my next planned stop was boondocking along the Denali Highway. The Denali is mostly gravel, and about 135 miles long. Until 1971 it was the only way to reach Denali National Park, when the paved Parks Highway was constructed. I didn't want to go too far on the Denali towing my trailer Discovery, as the road had a reputation for being quite rough, with potholes and gravel that, as speeding cars would pass you, would fly up and crack your windshield. So I searched around for a spot to park for the night, and settled on a pullout that gave me a great view of Denali, which was still "out" and at least 50 miles away. Here's the western start of the Denali Highway, as seen when driving my rig -- 

And some of the beautiful summer/fall colors among the Far North spruce forest -- 

And from my boondocking site -- Denali. You can just make out wind-whipped snow on the upper flanks of the mountain. I was really looking forward to seeing Denali in early-morning light.. But that will be for the next blog entry. :o)