Hey..I found the Alaska Range glaciers :D

[glacier_kitty]

Yesterday we drove down the Richardson Highway through the Alaska Range to Paxon. The Richardson is the way to get to Valdez which we drove down last year..but it was cloudy and rainy. Yesterday it was sunny..OMG it hardly looked the same. It was like seeing it for the first time haha. We missed crazy beautiful scenery!! We went on a different side of the mountains than the Parks Highway (the way to Denali and Anchorage). That's where all the glaciers were hiding too haha (I think the Denali side is on the rain shadow of the mountains and gets less snow). We ate lunch at Rika's Roadhouse! We ate there last year on the way to (and from!) Valdez. Their buffalo burgers are so good!! And they have tomato basil soup! From Paxon (hicktown :P) we got on the Denali highway and drove 38 miles on it (it's 100 some miles and ends at Cantwell. It used to be the only way to get to Denali I think). Most of it is dirt road. On one side was the Alaska Range and in the distance on the other was the Wrangell Mountains! Though the weather wasn't great over there and clouds were obscuring some of those mountains. Now for pics..



Tanana Riverrr



The really big ones are Hays, Hess and Deborah. Mom can see at least one of them through her bathroom window





The Pipeline bridge over the Tanana near Rika's Roadhouse







*droooools*





Heh



Glacial valley carved out by Black Rapids Glacier (it's in the pic but tiny haha). We passed the lodge it almost destroyed when it surged (moved fast) in 1936-37. And the lodge is quite a distance away! It's retreated a lot

The Pipeline

Gulkana Glacier

Summit Lake

I looked at Gulkana Glacier through the binoculars..OMG I could see the cracks in the glacier *drools*

Kettle pond and glaciated side of the Alaska Range



The mountains and Summit Lake from the Denali Highway. Summit Lake is a kettle pond too..that must have been a HUGE chunk of glacial ice







Hayes and Hess (?) and Maclaren Glacier









Black Rapids Glacier

And THIS is what I saw of it through the binoculars. I was like "OMG AWESOME EPIC!!!" LOOK AT ITS SWEET MORAINES!!

Pic of the day:



The Yukon Quest: A one thousand mile sled-dog race, run round trip between Whitehorse, Yukon, and Fairbanks, which many think is tougher than the Iditarod. The Quest passes through a whole lot of nothing in temperatures that would make a polar bear shiver (the Yukon Quest starts in Fairbanks next year!!)

Comments

[foxydanish.livejournal.com]

Wow the mountains look AWESOME! I love seeing your pictures all of the time. I would think it's safe to say that Alaska very possibly has some of the most absolutely beautiful scenery in the entire country.

I'm pondering going to the beach for a few hours this morning, so if I'm not back by the time you come online I will be shortly! I probably will be back before you sign on though. :P