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Richardson Highway, Valdez to Fairbanks

Valdez

• ** Valdez has a very spectacular fjord & mountain setting, despite the oil industry bustling in the area.
• In summer, you must make advance reservations in Valdez RV campgrounds due to popularity.
• Columbia Glacier cruise from Valdez, with "Stan Stephens":
  
• Columbia+Meares Glaciers (through August 31) 10-7pm $130 per person 9 hours w/lunch+snack.
  
• Columbia Glacier only through Sept 1-17 (12-7pm $90pp 7hours w/light meal.)
  
• Their Columbia Spirit is smaller & faster (44 passengers/18 knots) than Glacier Spirit (149/16 knots); Valdez Spirit (149/20 knots).
• Note that the Columbia Glacier is declining in beauty, so you may prefer the “26-Glacier Cruise” on College & Harriman Fjords, from Whittier on the Kenai Peninsula.
• ** The last thirty miles south to Valdez has beautiful sweeping vistas, small canyons & waterfalls.
• ** Worthington Glacier State Recreation Site: Nice hiking scenery, in the Chugach Mountains and Chugach National Forest, at Thompson Pass just outside Valdez.
• Glenn Highway (Glennallen to Anchorage):  The drive is 304 miles from Anchorage to Palmer to Glennallen to Valdez. To reverse the route from Valdez, drive north on the Richardson Highway, turn west on the Glenn Highway at Glennallen and drive back to Anchorage.

Left: Fireweed blooms at Port Valdez.

Below left: a motorhome drives through the impressive granite gorge near Valdez.

Worthington Glacier, on the Richardson Highway, near Valdez:

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve was proclaimed a national monument in 1978 and a world heritage site in 1979. In 1980, it was established as a national park and preserve, the largest in the USA.

• The Park Visitor Center is well worth visiting**: located at Richardson Highway Milepost 106.8, between Glennallen and Copper Center (open year-round; 8am-4:30pm, Monday-Friday). Their movie presentation is spectacular, like an IMAX in quality.
  
• Nabesna Road:    (** I haven’t driven this gravel road yet, but it looks well worth visiting "to get away from it all.")
  
• Nabesna Road offers spectacular scenery and access to a seldom seen, wild corner of Alaska, in the headwaters of the Copper River.
• 42 miles long, paved for the first 4 miles, then 2wd gravel, but stream crossings may require high clearance/4wd: Trail Creek (Mile 29), Lost Creek (Mile 30.8), Boyden Creek (Mile 34.3); all are usually dry or have only a shallow flow over the road surface; some soft bottoms.
• ** Primitive FREE campgrounds: Mile 6.1 Rufus Creek; Mile 12.2 Copper Lake Trailhead; ** Mile 16.6 great view of peaks; Mile 17.8 Dead Dog Hill Rest Area; Mile 21.8 Rock Lake Rest Area.
• ** Mile 15-18: notice the prominent Wrangell Mountains, all built up of the Wrangell Lavas, from 10 million years to very recent. The conspicuous high glaciated conical summit to the southwest is Mount Sanford, the fifth highest mountain in the United States with an elevation of 16,237', a strato-volcano (or composite cone). Mount Wrangell is the more distant, rounded and glacial covered dome southeast of Mount Sanford, with its summit of 14,163', the largest andesite shield volcano in North America; the park's only active volcano, occasional steam plumes. Shield volcanoes have more frequent, but less violent eruptions. North of Mount Sanford and nearer to the road is the jagged prominence of Capital Mountain 7,731', an eroded shield volcano, like Tanada Peak 9,240' (the jagged dark colored ridge north and east of Mt. Wrangell), formed between one and two million years ago and eroded only during the last million years. On a clear day, Mount Jarvis 13,421' can be seen over the right shoulder of Tanada Peak. Flowing northward from the great ice fields of Mount Wrangell is the Copper Glacier, melting into the Copper River which flows northward, then westward along the end of the Wrangell Range, then southward to the Gulf of Alaska near Cordova, cutting through the coastal barrier of the Chugach Mountains, and marking most of the Park’s western boundary.
• Mile 24.7 Watershed Divide (3,320 ft). Leaving the Copper River watershed which drains into the Gulf of Alaska and entering the Yukon River watershed which drains into the Bering Sea.

Chitina, on the Copper River:

Chitina:

• Chitina is a native American village, located 325 miles from Anchorage, with views of the Wrangell Mountains.
  
• My wife Carol stayed with the RV at the public Copper River Campground across the long bridge near Chitina, while I took the Kennecott Shuttle (1-866-582-5292) for 60 miles one way to McCarthy for an overnight stay.

Left: the Edgerton Highway to Chitina, at sunset.

McCarthy:

• McCarthy Road Warning: The 60 miles from Chitina to McCarthy is 2.5 to 3 hours one way on a dusty potholed gravel road, muddy when wet. Chitina is 325 miles from Anchorage. Large vehicles are not recommended beyond mile 17 east of Chitina. "Please respect the mostly private property along McCarthy Road."
• Kennecott Shuttle: I recommend parking your RV in Chitina and let someone else drive – take the daily Kennecott Shuttle to McCarthy & Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
• Kennecott Shuttle takes you to the McCarthy footbridge, for the day or multiple nights, so you can visit the remote village of McCarthy & the ghost town of Kennicott Copper Mines & good nearby hikes.
• “Avoid the old railroad spikes, save your tires.”
• Conveniently picks you up from Glennallen, Copper Center, Kenny Lake Mercantile, or Chitina.
• Telephone: 1-866-582-5292.  Internet: www.alaska-backcountry-tours.com

Left: the McCarthy Road is known for its roughness. Here a car slid off the edge and lost a tire.

Below right: Gilahina Trestle was built 90 feet high in 1911.


Left: an old wagon in McCarthy.

Below right: Former General Merchandise store sign on the side of a building, and old wagon wheel at McCarthy.

Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark:

Located 5 miles from of McCarthy (via shuttle or hike),  Kennecott is one of America’s wildest & most photogenic ghost towns, a copper mining town dating from 1889-1938 (well worth visiting**).

Left: This image is a sandwich of two separate images focused close and far, shot on a tripod without moving the camera, and combined in Adobe Photoshop. I focused one image on the fireweed flowers, and focused the other on the Kennecott buildings. The combination gives a deeper, sharper depth of field.



Below left: The Kennecott Mining Town (not spelled with an "i") is dwarfed by the Kennicott Glacier (spelled with an "i"), which is covered in natural gravel.

Below: old wheels, belts and machinery inside buildings at the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark.


Left: old wheels, gears and machinery inside buildings at the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark.

Below right: Old American Steel cables from the ore tramway at Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark.

Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark.



Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark.

Trans-Alaska Pipeline, along the Richardson Highway:

Left: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is maintained by the Alyeska Pipeline Company.

Below: The Trans Alaska Pipeline is S-shaped to enable expansion and contraction as weather heats and cools it. The horizontal slip-bars allow for sliding in a severe earthquake.

The Alaska Range, on the Richardson Highway:

Left: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline passes through the Alaska Range.

Fairbanks:

Left: the architecturally striking Museum of the North, at the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks.

Below right: An old handmade fish and seal skin bag is displayed at the Museum of the North, at the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks.



Left: Polar Bear "Arctic Shadow", cast bronze with white marbled patinia, by Jacques and Mary Regat. University of Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks.

Below: Polar bear living in the Alaska Zoo, Anchorage.


Left: The town of North Pole, Alaska claims "the world's largest Santa Claus".

Alaska Maps:

Map of our 2006 RV driving trip, about 2300 miles:
Map of Alaska:

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