West point

Sunday, July 22, 2007

WASILLA, ALASKA — Tonight, we have left the Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage behind, and are on our way toward Denali National Park, the jewel of Alaska. It was rather a longer drive today, and it rained on us nearly the whole way. The scenic Sterling and Seward Highways that we followed from Homer may have been spectacular, but clouds got in our way! Fortunately, we were covering territory we had seen going the other way, so we didn’t feel totally cheated.
We were able to enjoy the beautiful wildflowers by the roadside, since we weren’t completely socked in. The peninsula was full of Queen Anne’s Lace, and a second widely dispersed flower were tall, deep purple lupins. There was one field just filled with both kinds in a stunning array. I wanted to take a photo on the way down but we passed it too quickly, so this time we stopped, but they weren’t nearly so vivid in the rain. So I settled for a closeup of one cluster instead.
Rainy weather seems to suit certain wildlife, as today we encountered two moose — and we have never seen moose on sunny days. One of the two, which were both cow moose, was calmly grazing by the side of the highway and paid us no mind at all as we passed her. Later after lunch we saw the other, on the same side of the highway as us, but this one was running by the road. She swerved away from us when Val pressed on the brakes, fortunately, and not into our path. Hoping to spot a third somewhere, I watched closely at every marshy area we passed, but two was it for today.
It wasn’t until we arrived at the Alaskan Nights RV Park tonight and looked at the map that I realized we have gone as far west as we’re going to go, hitting our westernmost point in a small town called Anchor Point, just a few miles outside of Homer. So, technically speaking, we are now heading home!
When lunchtime rolled around, I was looking in our Milepost guide for a good restaurant, because the trailer gets so cold inside on rainy days. Something hot is much more appealing when it’s 13 degrees out! We found a suitable place with plenty of room for big rigs (a higher priority than the quality of the menu if the truth be told!) and pulled off to park. When we went in the door, the owner came up to us right away and apologetically explained that we’d have a 45 minute to an hour wait! So it was off to the chilly trailer for cold sandwiches and icy milk, eaten wearing our jackets! I was so grateful for the heated leather seats in the truck when we got on our way again. That, and the warm computer on my lap, thawed me out in no time.
We saw quite a few stalwart fisher folk on the Kenai River that ran along the highway at the northern section of the peninsula. The turquoise green colour of the river is so startling! And people in boats and rubber dinghies were out in good numbers, as well as others standing in the water in hip waders.
There was actually a traffic jam when we got to the junction of the Sterling Highway, from Homer, and the Seward Highway that would bring us off the peninsula. We slowed to a crawl for about a mile as one after another RV or truck or car waited at the stop sign to make the left turn onto the Seward. There’s an intersection that would be a good candidate for a traffic light.
The cloud ceiling lifted a bit as we approached Anchorage, so we were able to enjoy the steep mountains around Knik basin at the tip of Cook Inlet. They rise so high by the highway, and the moss, grasses, shrubs and pine trees cloak them in so many different shades of green. Near the tops were patches of snow.
Our route took us right through the city of Anchorage, but being a Sunday afternoon, the traffic flowed quite easily. About 35 miles beyond the city was our turnoff onto the Parks Highway that loops north toward Denali and Fairbanks. The region we are now in is officially named after its main two rivers, the Matanuska and the Susitna, but its nickname is Mat-Su. Wasilla is a town of about 6,000 people with plenty of big box stores along the main drag. It is Alaska’s fastest growing community with a rate of 40 per cent since the year 2000.
Our campground is brand new, with not a twig or a green branch in the whole expanse of its 120 or so sites, but at least it is surrounded by woods. And, lucky for me, the rain has let up so I can trek over to the main building to post this without getting drenched.