The end of the Glenn Highway.
It’s hard to see the ripples in the road ahead in this picture. Believe me when I say they’re there. Sometimes they’re marked and sometimes they aren’t. It’s best to pay attention!
Worthington Glacier on the way to Valdez.
Bridal Veil Falls. This picture really doesn’t do it justice. Its absolutely stunning.
This is a short video I took of Bridal Veil Falls. One of my favorite places.
Part of today’s haul of fish in Valdez.
The Valdez marina. Old Town Valdez is about a mile past the marina going toward the mountain in the background. When the earthquake hit Alaska in 1964, a massive 27 foot high tsunami hit Old Town Valdez and destroyed the town. The new town center was moved inland about a mile from the original location.
The Road to Valdez
Today we drove from Grand View, by Sheep Mountain in the middle of nowhere on the Glenn Highway to Valdez. We drove to the end of the Glenn Highway and then took the Richardson Highway to Valdez. It’s an incredibly beautiful drive through mountains and valleys, Thompson Pass, and finally to Valdez. The icing on the cake is the last 20 miles or so that take you past a ton of waterfalls. Bridal Veil and Horsetail falls are right off the road. If you’re driving too fast, it’s easy to go right past them. You have to slow down a bit to be able to take it all in.
One of the recurring themes since starting the Alaska Highway is “read the road”. There’s massive frost heaves from the extreme winter temperatures. You can destroy your vehicle in a hurry if you’re going too fast. You have to really pay attention to the lines on the road ahead of you. The other part of the experience is the roller coaster effect caused by the frost heaves. It’s quite the ride!
Tomorrow will be bittersweet. We will drive from Valdez north to Tok before starting the Alaska Highway back toward home on Monday. We have one more stop planned in the panhandle of Alaska but we will need to drive through Yukon and northern British Columbia to get there. We plan to visit Haines, AK on Wednesday and Skagway on Thursday. I’ll write more from the road in a couple days.
Our Traveling Buddies
A few people have asked about our dogs Hank and Macklin so I thought I’d write a little about them today. They are incredible traveling buddies. Most of the time we don’t even notice them while we’re driving down the road. It’s like they were made for this.
Hank is our Whoodle (Weaten Terrier / Poodle). He travels on a cushy spot made by a couple blankets between the front seats. He’s free to get up and move around while we’re driving if he needs to. He was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. He has a tumor on his hip that’s about the size of an orange. When we took him to have it removed a year ago, the vet also did an MRI of his torso. He found more tumors on his lungs and his stomach so he decided not to remove the tumor. It’s hard to tell that he has cancer though. He is doing very well, living his best life logging miles with us in the RV.
Macklin is our eight month old Mini Australian Shepherd. She has had quite a the story in her short life. We got her in early March after we our little Mikko passed away. Mikko was 12.5. We got Macklin as a 3 month old puppy. We have learned that Aussies have two speeds; zero and a hundred. When she was four months old, she ran full speed into the corner of a bookcase at home and just about died. She fractured her skull and had three large bone fragments embedded in her brain. She had to have a pretty serious brain surgery to save her life. Her doctors had no idea if she would survive the surgery or how she would do after. Her surgery came with no guarantees. She had to learn everything over again, starting with learning how to walk again. Only by the grace of God, she has healed probably 95%. She has some lasting physical effects from the traumatic brain injury but is physically doing incredibly well. She’s very much a diva and a mama’s girl. We do crate her if we are traveling a rough stretch of road. That is more for her protection than anything. When she’s not in her crate, she loves to ride shotgun with whoever is in the passenger seat and take in the passing scenery outside. Everyone she’s met just loves her. I’m not sure they could possibly love her more than I do though. She’s my girl!
Hank in his “navigator” position.
Macklin in her favorite spot, riding shotgun on my lap.
