Day 36 July 10, 2011 Driving from Tok to Anchorage AK

Day 36 - July 10, Driving from Tok to Anchorage.

Although the morning showed a little rain before we were up, it stopped and the skies began to open up by 8:00Am. We packed up the trailer and headed down the rest of the road which was the “Tok Cutoff” as it was originally called in 1941 when construction started in the direction of Anchorage. BUT...when the Japanese attacked the Aleutian Islands, namely, Attu and Dutch Harbor (bombed) that put that road on hold. The reason being that the Airbase (now Eielson AFB) was at Fairbanks and the US had been “hopping” planes to the Russians already so all military equipment should go there. Why not?

So the Tok Cutoff was finished in the early 1950’s to expedite the traffic to Anchorage and connecting with the Parks Highway to Denali and Fairbanks.

Now this stretch of road has a lot of beauty, but the main ingredient is weather. With all the mountains nearby, the chances of good weather (cloudy and partly sunny), are not very good. BUT as God is good (always) the sun shone and we snapped away at the beautiful reflections in lakes, the flowers and of course the mountains that were now exposed from top to bottom in all their glory.

Two sections of road rather split the views into two groups , although the mountains are seen all along. First section from Tok to Glenallen, has the Wrangell/St Elias Mountain Range in view . They are about 20 miles away and quite visible to the eye. Today Mt. Sanford was UNBELIEVABLY CLEAR. Ruth snapped away and the first mountain was a rounded form, much like a ball, and completely covered with snow. (The snow was a glacier or -glacier field). The second, Mt, Drum was more like a typical ”mountain” with small peaks made into one mountain. Both are over 16,000 feet in height. We could not see Mt.Logan (19,000 feet+) as it is on the back side of the range.

The road continued to be a problem as we could travel only about 40 mph and many times more slowly than that in order to sow enough to keep the dips from damaging the vehicle. One had to be alert or a transmission or axle could crack or some other part would break.

After Glenallen (1/3 of the way), the valleys that emitted from the range were closer and we could see the glaciers that came down toward the Matanuska and Tanzina Rivers . There were three main glaciers visible and only 5-8 miles away. They were the Nelchina, Tanzina and Matanuska Glaciers, the latter being closest to the road and public access was a few minutes away and downhill. The Matanuska River gets very wide and braided as it nears the city of Palmer. Many rocks and lots of gravel (no shortage of that here) along the river bed. There was a huge coal minenear Sutton before Palmer,but it is inactive now. We stopped at Palmer for gas ($3.88/gal.) as it was still 39 miles to Anchorage, continued on the Glenn Highway into Anchorage and found the RV Park. (Read the story about the Park in tomorrows post.)

All in all it was a marvelous day with sights seldom seen by those passing by on the Glenn Highway. Jim did see a lone animal and that crossed the road just out side of Glenallen. It was a wolf and the first we had seen. What a treat. Tomorrow ...we are in Anchorage and get the truck and trailer washed!