Kathleen's Window: Valdez, Anchorage, and Girdwood

Monday, July 14, 2014

Okay, I am going to attempt to summarize the past week in Alaska and keep this to one posting. (It just morphed into two. The road to Seward follows in the next post!) Same problem happened last summer in Canada. We are doing so much in a short time that I don't have the time, energy, or bandwidth to keep up with the blog.

Today I am “tappity-tapping”, as Greg calls it, at the dinette facing out towards Resurrection Bay in Seward. The weather is glorious, the sea otters are drifting by, and the fishing and tours boats are trundling back and forth as they sail in and out of the bay. Before we arrived here, we traveled to Valdez, Anchorage, and Girdwood. Has it only been a week?

Resurrection Bay View

The Road to Valdez-

We left our campsite at Gulkana River and drove to Glenallen, where we picked up Route 4 and drove south to Valdez. The scenery went from “Alaska ordinary” to amazing as we began to see the top of Mt. Drum, one of the highest in North America, poking out of the clouds. The Wrangell Mountains were revealing themselves along the horizon as we traveled south. Further down the highway we glimpsed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and Pump Station 12, and then climbed up to Worthington Glacier.

Mt. Drum in the distance

The Trans Alaska Pipeline

Pump Station 12

Worthington Glacier in Thompson Pass

We stopped for a short while to walk up towards it, then returned to the highway to drive over Thompson Pass. This area attracts the extreme skiers and snowboarders, who are helicoptered into the backcountry. The danger of snow avalanches in the area was evident as we dropped down into the narrow, steep-sided Keystone Canyon, and found the leftover snowpack from the huge avalanche from the past winter, that plugged up the valley, dammed up the river and closed the highway until enough snow could be removed to re-open it.

Looking up the Tiekel River into Thompson Pass

The remnants of last winter's huge avalanche that closed the road and temporarily dammed the river.

The Tiekel River Gorge

Looking down into Devils Elbow of the Tiekel River

Looking down the Worthington Glacier outwash plain and moraine pond

The toe of the glacier with a tiny tourist in the foreground for scale.

Lots of rock flour in the water.

Looking across the terminal moraine pond

Looking down the Lowe River from Thompson Pass

Another glacier in the mountains above the pass

Keystone Canyon along the Lowe River above Valdez

Finally, after 120 miles driving from Glenallen, we reached Valdez. We drove around town a bit, ate lunch at The Halibut Company, Greg got fish and chips, and marveled that all the in-town RV parks were filled. The town has fishing derbys that run all summer, plus the whale watching boats go out into Prince William Sound from there. We had already planned to stay across the bay in a city campground along the water, so we drove out of town and around the bay until we reached the Valdez Pipeline Terminal. Greg was responsible for a number of cleanup projects at the Valdez Marine Terminal 20 years ago, so he was none too pleased to see the tank farm again. But, for $15 we dry camped in the gravel lot along the water, so it was worth it.

Halibut & Salmon & Rockfish & Chips

Drive along Valdez Arm from the Marine Terminal

Our camp on city property outside the Terminal

Catching Pinks below camp

The main loading pier at the Valdez Marine Terminal

Our view from camp with the town of Valdez across the water.

The light rain came and went, the fog rolled in and out. From time to time we would catch glimpses of the high mountains rimming the bay, and see their patches of snow. We took a walk along the water and watched people fishing for pink salmon, and the gulls and bald eagles hanging out waiting for the scraps. There seemed to be several nesting pairs of eagles in the area. It was fun to watch and hear them soar along the shoreline and roost in nearby trees. There were also sea lions and otters swimming in front of the rig.

Bald Eagle

The beach

Really Fierce Wildlife - this eagle roosted right near camp

The fog came in to stay the next morning, and the rain started in earnest. We couldn't see the town, mountains, or the water. So, we decided to head back up the highway and drive towards Anchorage. The rain cleared as we arrived on the northern side of the mountains, and we got back on the Glen Highway at Glenallen, and began to drive southwest towards Anchorage. Late afternoon, we found a small abandoned state park campground along the Little Nelchina River. The highway had been realigned, and probably so that they wouldn't have to maintain the bridge, the state closed the site, but legally, we could still camp there. Finding a great site along the river, and keeping our eyes out for rafters and bears, (none came by), we joined two other boondockers for the night.

Great free camp on the Little Nelchina River

Back to Anchorage-
The next day we finished the drive into Anchorage. The road through the Matanuska Valley and the Matanuska Glacier have been improved. We took a quick look at the Matanuska Glacier and noticed how much it had receded in the past 20 years. Driving through Palmer we saw the Alaska State Fairgrounds, best fairs we ever went to! The old T intersection with the Parks Highway was gone and replaced by a big overpass. There was now a four lane highway through the Palmer Hayflats, where the migrating birds gather. There is no more stopping on the side of the road to view them. You must exit off the road. I remembered driving this stretch in dense fog, my passenger had his window rolled down with his head out, and would say right or left to keep me from going over the white line, while I drove 10 mph and strained to see the center line and any on-coming cars. There wasn't a shoulder big enough, or safe enough to stop on.

Driving down the Glenn Highway along Long Lake

The Matanuska Glacier

Near the upper end of Knik Arm

The rest of the way into Anchorage the traffic was heavy and zipped along. There was so much new building on the northern end of town, that we couldn't recognize any landmarks. Before we knew it we were dumped into downtown. The tourism industry is alive and well judging from the number of tourists wandering around downtown. There were a few new shops, but most of downtown hadn't changed. We discovered that Anchorage has joined the food truck revolution, so we found RV parking in the old Saturday Market/Fur Rendezvous carnival ride area, and walked to the Alaska Alchemist Coffee truck, which also prepared food. Fanciest food truck we've seen yet. It was made out of a shipping container, and in half of it the sides were glass. It had a great steam-punky mural painted on the outside with a robotic moose and salmon. We sat outside and enjoyed our lunches, for me a reindeer/carne asada taco salad, and Greg got halibut tacos.

Then we walked all over downtown and drove south to REI. We were REI virgins when we moved there. They equipped us with our first cross country skis, and Greg's first mountain bike. While we lived there, Greg's boss became the Chairman of the Board for REI. Big change there, too. Same place, but totally expanded, renovated and trendied up! Right down the row is Title Wave Books, the best used bookstore EVER. Still there. Still going strong, and greatly expanded. Greg stocked up on SciFi books, cheaper than getting them electronically for his NOOK.

The 4th Avenue tourist area

Next stop was our old neighborhood. That was the biggest shock of the day. When we left our house was ten years old. Now the 28 year old houses are showing signs of the rough Alaska weather. Most of the houses were in desperate need of paint. There were extra cars everywhere. The small yards were filled with junk, and the trees, bushes and lawns were almost all overgrown. We were shocked at how quickly the neighborhood went downhill! Our old house was not the worst, but it was typical.

Our old house

We drove out of our old community the other direction and could no longer recognize anything. The empty area has been entirely built up, with apartments and a commercial area. Dispirited we drove over to dry camp in the new Cabela's parking lot for the night. Throughout Anchorage we passed all the big box stores, lots of chain restaurants and stores, heavy traffic, and rude drivers. Kmart and WalMart arrived while we lived in Anchorage (nicknamed Los Anchorage) from 1992-1996, and they opened up the doors for all the others. Even our old favorite local grocery store chain Carrs, has been bought by Safeway. Many places experience growth, but Alaska has been an exception. Constrained by the limitations of distance, climate, and citizens who came here to embrace those isolating aspects of the Alaskan lifestyle, there has traditionally been a slowness to embrace the new. But, Anchoragites always wanted more. When the first two big box stores arrived, customers lined up all night in the winter cold to wait for the 6 am openings. Finally Alaskans could buy what their Lower 48 relatives bought.

The entrance to Cabela's

Don't know what this but we need one

We pulled into the brand new Cabela's parking lot and walked inside. We were greeted by plastic Beluga whales hanging from the ceiling. The rest of the Alaska wildlife was stuffed and displayed around the store, as well as a center display of wildlife from the Lower 48. We walked back to the rig and slept with another eight rigs in the parking lot. Then used their free dump, but they didn't provide water, so we had to begin the water hunt.

Saturday was chore day in Anchorage. We found a laundromat and washed a month's worth of clothes. Then we drove to our old Carrs grocery store. We filled up with diesel, looked for water, didn't find it, and started driving south out of town. A short drive along Turnigan Arm's waters on the Seward Highway, and we stopped for the night at Bird Creek State Recreation Area. It was still early enough in the afternoon to find a space, but it filled up the rest of the way fast. We had to watch many RV's drive past and out again looking for a site. We also had to put up with the picnickers trying to avoid paying the day use fee, by using the campground sites for their fires and barbeques. We see this everywhere we go in the country. Luckily the ranger showed up and gave them envelopes to fill out and pay the $15 a night camping fee. They left.

The Turnagain Arm mudflats at low tide

The railroad to Girdwood and Seward

Looking back toward Cook Inlet

Bird Creek Camp

Quick Highway to Girdwood-
That night we got a glimpse of the Super Moon even though it stayed light all night. Sunday morning we left to make the short drive to Girdwood, where I pastored Girdwood Chapel United Methodist Church for two years. The road along Turnigan Arm was wide and fast! The curves and hills and two lane road were gone. Lots of room to pass the RV's that used to be called the 'Bago Line, when they clogged up the traffic. Hopefully the better road has lowered the high accident rate the road had, and allowed for better clearing of the snow avalanches that would periodically cover it.

Seward Highway near Girdwood

Heading up into Girdwood

The small shopping center, with a new modern gas station was larger and parked full with tourists. We drove past the Alaska Candle Factory, owned by George and Ida from our congregation. It has a new name now. Lots of new housing was everywhere. The town lost the fight to stay small when the local ski resort was bought up by SEIBU Corp, a Japanese company, and built the Alyeska Prince Hotel and developed the mountain with a huge tram lift, which takes you to a large lodge and restaurant on the top of the mountain. They finished their work while we were there, and that seems to have been the end of the small community of Girdwood, with its warm, caring spirit. Those qualities may still exist, but there is so much new upscale building there now, I'd rather not contemplate the changes.

The huge Alyeska Prince Hotel

Fancy vacation homes in Girdwood

Many old style Girdwood cabins are still there

The Girdwood Moose Meadow, sans moose.

The village center. Gone is the gravel road and the laundromat where locals took their weekly showers.

Driving past the old church building we were not surprised to see that it was gone. The congregation moved it to a larger lot some years ago. We were surprised to see that it was just a dirt parking lot, after the congregation had turned down many previous attempts to buy it and develop it. Greg made a beeline up the hill to The Bake Shop, still thriving there after Werner and Leslie, also from the congregation sold it. We indulged in one of their great huge cinnamon buns and looked for familiar faces while reminiscing. We soon realized that all the kids working there had not even been born until after we left! Afterward, we drove past the huge hotel and then went in search of the new church building. We found a lovely, new building, and discovered that the old building had just been torn down. I would have liked to have seen it one last time. A little later, we saw one moose being mobbed by tourists with cameras, as we drove back on to the Seward Highway.