Port Alcan

Well, as my last post indicated, we have made it to Alaska. I am now settled into our apartment on the campus of the University of Alaska--Anchorage and have begun my work at the Weather Forecast Office here in town. But first, a recap.

Pictures aren't ready yet, but as soon as they are available I'll share a few with you. Our story picks up where I last left off. Joe and I left Whitehorse, Yukon Territory at 7 in the morning on Monday. What followed were 5 hours of the most desolate highway we had seen yet. There are VERY few towns...only two or three between Haines Junction an hour out of Whitehorse and Beaver Creek by the Alaska-Canada Border. The road winds up between the Kluane and Dawson ranges of mountains on this stretch. We were in pure taiga land, with all coniferous forests and (according to our guidebook) areas of permafrost underground. The centerpiece of this leg of the drive was the great Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon Territory. The road follows a narrow strip between the Kluane Mountains and the lake. There were two towns--Destruction Bay and Burwash Landing--both on the lake. These, along with Haines Junction, were the only towns on this stretch. Calling them towns is also a stretch--most were a small collection of buildings with a gas station and a "closed for the season" lodge or RV park. From the lake, the highway continues to wind westward, approaching the Alaskan border. There are numerous frost heaves, where freezing and melting have caused severe dips and buckles in the pavement. This required some very attentive driving and several gut-swooping moments during the drive.

After gassing up in Beaver Creek, another 15 miles or so down the road was the Alaska-Canada border at Port Alcan. We stopped and took several pictures on the actual border, which is marked by a swath of trees that have been blasted out in a line stretching north to south along the border. The US Customs station was right after that, and the man there let us through in just a minute or so. No being searched or any ordeal like we had when coming into Canada. Of course, it looked like this guy may have been the only guy working that day, and we are way out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe these all contributed to the ease of our crossing. But anyhow, with nothing to hide, we were let through and got into Alaska. Clocks were set back an hour. I am now 3 hours behind Central Time (in case you were wondering).

Wow! What a difference that border crossing makes! For such an arbitrary border line, there is a drastic difference between the American and Canadian sides of the border. In Alaska, the highway moves away from the mountains (though the Saint Elias Mountains are still quite scenic and visible on the southern horizon) and into this vast open plain, filled with forests of pine and deciduous trees. Whereas it seemed like the trees had become all coniferous in the Yukon with any deciduous trees having no leaves, here the trees were all fully leafed out and it was beautiful. The road stays on the north side of the plain, riding along a hillside of a low ridge of hills to the north. It felt like a nice Sunday drive in Wisconsin or something through the woods. Even though it was still another 90 miles to the city of Tok, it didn't feel nearly as isolated as things did in the Yukon. There wasn't much more traffic either, nor any stops or gas stations, but seeing "Speed Limit 55" and American signs...I don't know. Perhaps the feeling of home removed some of the loneliness of being in a foreign county (if you can consider Canada foreign). Anyhow, we much more optimistically cruised the 90 miles into Tok.

Tok is the first major town you come to in Alaska, and the first place I had cell phone service since we crossed the Canadian border when this trip began. The city is pronounced like "Toke" as in "Token" and not like the word "talk". With familiar gas stations and other conveniences all being American brands and gas prices being $3.00 per gallon on the signs (they are at around $2.60 in Anchorage) instead of $1.00 per litre, it was more reassuring.

We left the official Alaska Highway in Tok, having travelled some 1300 miles on it. We took another highway called the Tok Cutoff that leads from Tok to Glennallen on the way to Anchorage. The actual Alaska Highway continues north to the city of Delta Junction where it officially ends (though for most people the actual ending is in Fairbanks after following the Richardson Highway north from Delta Junction). The Tok Cutoff winds between a few smaller mountain ranges unil you clear the Mantuska Mountains and then...then you see the Wrangell Mounains. Now, most of the mountains we have seen thus far on our trip, even in Canada, wer around 8,000 feet tall. As you come into view of the Wrangell Mountains, the primary peak is called Mount Sanford and it is 16,300 feet tall--one of the ten tallest mountains in Alaska. And it is just massive...massively huge. And all covered in snow. Behind it and to he left of it are several other 10,000 foot plus mountains, though they are all separated by a little bit, so each mountain is distinct in its own massiveness. They are all dormant volcanoes (except for Mount Wrangell, which is somewhat active at times). Just massive mountains. It makes me really want to see the even taller Denali/Mount McKinley at over 20,000 feet...it just has to be massive as well. I will get pictures up of this soon. Views of those mountains continued on the Tok Cutoff into the city of Glennallen.

Glennallen marks the beginning of the Glenn Highway, which goes all the way into Anchorage. After fueling up and leaving the Copper River valley that we had been following (including leaving the views of the Wrangells), we began to catch glimpses of the Chugach Range to the south in the distance. As we approached, the highway becomes an "Alaska Scenic Byway" which I found funny because pretty much every highway in Alaska was scenic. So I thought it was kind of a joke. I was wrong. The Glenn Highway dives into the Chugach mountains, in between the body of the Chugach and a smaller range to the north. A large glacier sits at the head of this valley called the Matanuska glacier. Meltwater from the end of this glacier forms the Matanuska River. This river carves an IMMENSE valley between the tall Chugach mountains and several slightly smaller mountains to the north. The River is a rushing river, winding back and forth at the bottom of the valley with rapids and white water. The hill sides are densely forested with so many trees that it actually looks like it's tropical. Like images you see of rainforests on mountainsides in Cosa Rica. Simply amazing. And the highway dives down into the valley by the river, then jumps up to high on he northern hillside giving grand views of this valley. Spectacular.

We followed this valley, being awed by it all the way, into the city of Palmer which sits on the northern end of the Cook Inlet of the Pacific Ocean about an hour north of Anchorage. Palmer is actually an agricultural area and was settled by farmers from Wisconsin and Minnesota, so it reminds me a lot of a small Wisconsin farming town. South of Palmer, the highway becomes an actual "highway" and becomes four lanes and divided up to Interstate Standards. This passes through the northern suburbs of Anchorage and into the City of Anchorage itself, which lies on a peninsula of flat land between the end of the Chugach Mountains and the Cook Inlet. It's a city of around 250,000 people, so rather populous with all of the conveniences we've come to know down in the lower 48. It's amazing to travel all this way and end up in an isolated enclave teeming with Americanism. The Matanuska Valley drive there really provided a stunning, unexpected and spectacular end to our trip. Just when we thought we had seen it all, all the days of looking at mountains after mountains after mountains...we were amazed again.

So I have triumphantly arrived in Anchorage with Joe. We now join that elite group of people who have driven the Alaska Highway to Alaska. I'm amazed at how far we've come. My car needs a car wash.

I've also begun work at the Weather Forecast. But that's a blog for another day. Hope you're enjoying this so far!