Alaska the beautiful

Saturday, July 14, 2007

PALMER, ALASKA — The state of Alaska is huge. If you were to superimpose a map of it onto the lower 48 states, it would stretch from Florida in the east all the way to California in the west, taking in its panhandle and the long string of Aleutian islands. The part of it that is populated and traveled is only about one third of the state at its eastern edge. The rest of Alaska is vast tundra, mountains, rivers and forests.
While we have only scratched the surface, we have absorbed an inkling of its massive size. Today we left Glennallen and headed westward along the Glenn Highway (Highway 1) in the direction of Anchorage. Palmer is not far from there; in fact the Homestead Campground where we are tonight claims to be within commuting distance of Anchorage, about 40 miles.
The campground is nicely laid out on a rise of land with beautiful birch trees strategically placed between large pull-through lots. At the south side of the property, the land drops precipitously to a distant river bed and a wide plain, and further south is a magnificent mountain range with craggy, snow-capped peaks. The plain and the mountains stretch as far as the eye can see in both directions, and today we passed through at least three huge stretches like this, separated by mountain passes with winding roads between enormous walls of rock.
At one point, we were stopped by a road crew for several minutes. The Glenn Highway is closed every night from midnight to six in the morning while construction crews take advantage of the long hours of daylight to work on the road. The design of the current road is telling its age; there are lots of serpentine sections through the mountain passes with sheer rock faces above and steep drops below, and more rises and dips than you would find in more recent highways. The work they are doing won’t be finished till 2009, according to the flag person we chatted with while we waited.
We saw a number of glaciers today. Most of the ones we have seen are thick build-ups of ice and snow at the V between two or three large peaks. This morning, it was the Tazlina Glacier, nestled at the base of Mount McKinley, Alaska’s most widely-known peak and, even at this late date in the summer, still completely white with snow and ice. It was strange to look at it out on our left side, in chilly shades of white, icy blue and grey, while on our right were rolling hills clad in green and sprinkled with flowers. The Nelchina Glacier had a similar appearance, but the Matanuska Glacier was quite different, spreading lengthwise through a long trough-like valley for quite a distance. We stopped at a turnout that gave us a good view of this one to enjoy a scenic lunch.
As we prepared our sandwiches, there was a tap on the back window of the trailer, and there was Georgette, our Swiss friend, waving hello. We invited her and Farid in to join us, and had a lovely long break, talking more about our travels, and hearing about Switzerland. When we told our tale of Tracie Harris and her gold claim on the marge of Lake Laberge, we tried to explain Robert Service’s poem, but decided the best thing would be to read it to them. So I did an impromptu performance of The Cremation of Sam McGee for their edification! Good thing we had the book handy so I could read from it! For our dessert, we enjoyed a lovely Toblerone bar which they brought in with them.
Once again on our way, we passed through Chickaloon (a town with a name that Val loves to repeat) with a population of 242, boasting a general store and a starting point for white-water venturers, of which we saw quite a few. Our route paralleled the Matanuska River most of the way from this point, a swiftly-flowing tributary that is liberally ruffled by rapids. It’s a perfect playground for the speed- and spume-loving set. That doesn’t include me! I wished we could have seen some of the people actually out on the river, but all we passed were groups about to set out, or just getting off. It looked like it would be an exciting ride.
There were so many mountains around us, but three stood out in particular along today’s route. One was the King Mountain, shaped like a huge pyramid, Gunsight Mountain, with a perfect notch at the peak just like a gunsight, and Lion Head, with a bulbous dome on one side much like the head of a lion, next to a rump-like shape to complete the image. Knob Lake, next to that mountain, picked up on that head shape as well. The knob is a great spot for birdwatchers in the spring, who hold an annual tailgate party there while they count the eagles, hawks, kestrels and other raptors that migrate along that path every year.
More mundane things awaited us at our destination; it was time for another laundry session, so we’re now all set with clean clothes and linens for another week.