Plan B.
It was raining when we got to Anchorage and it was still raining when we
got up, so Plan B. We headed to the
Alaska Fur and Ivory Exchange, per a recommendation from the same someone who
recommended the glacier boat tour out of Whittier. Interesting place! You walk in and look up and a taxidermied
moose is smiling down at you, and other animals are not necessarily smiling but
have their own facial expressions. There
was so much tucked into that store. It
was actually a large store, but there was a lot of things there. I could have bought animal skins, with or
without the heads attached. Yes, you read correctly. Ivory, jade, and other precious and semi-precious
stones, but as part of jewelry and loose.
I could have bought leather made from a variety of sources by the yard,
slippers, hats or scarves, the most intricately carved antlers and wood. It was definitely worth the trip in to see
what was in there. There were actually
fur trappers having a conversation in the back with I guess the fur buyer and
they were discussing the availability of some and the prices of others.
We took off towards Valdez by way of Lake
Louise. Everything is melting from the
mountains so the rivers and creeks and waterfall are gushing. It creates quite the scenery as you
drive! The names vary from native
sounding ones (Chickaloon River) to plain ones (Squirrel Creek). Some of the roads today were back to being
extremely winding with the mountain directly to the left and a severe drop-off
directly to the right. All the roads
have markers on them to show the snow plows were the roads end. They are very tall and are bright orange at
the top. I can see why this would be
very important on some of the roads we took today.
Then we had to use the restroom. Nature called and there was a little “snack
shack” off to the right. We also wanted
some jerky. We went in and bought our
jerky and noticed a sign that said glacier, so we asked. The Matanuska Glacier was literally down the
hill from this little place and “Yeah, you can walk right up to it.” So, of course we had to. The road kept warning us that is was a
dangerous road but we kept seeing other vehicles coming from it. One mile in and we had to pay for access and
sign “waivers.” Another two miles in and
there she was!! HOLY COW! The glaciers yesterday
were amazing as we got pretty darn close, but these looked like you could
really walk on them. We drove and
noticed some people had guides (there was that option but we opted out) and
just followed the orange cones. It
looked like we were walking on fine rocks, and then you hear water
running. Then you look down and realize
you are walking on ice. YES! ICE!
The rocks are part of what the glacier picked up and it keeps it from
being too slippery. We literally were
walking across a glacier! What a LIFE®
card! The water was running below the
ice and there were crevices and cracks and such between large sections. It is
so hard to explain and I am not even sure our pictures will do it justice. Some people had crampons and walking sticks
with pointy ends so they were going really far out onto the white/blue
part. We stayed on the clear dirty icy
part and just got close to one. Andrew
found a rock that was pretty cool and was joking that he found gold. A gentleman nearby said he was a geologist
and took a look. He really was one! He and his professor were there for a few
weeks studying glacier rocks and activity and the professor was taking pictures
of the cracks and crevices and our young friend had his own backpack filled with
rock samples. He assured us we did have
gold! Well, a gold-colored rock that was part of the granite.
On to Lake Louise! We missed that the last time we were here so
we wanted to see what the fuss was about.
It is down a roller coaster road about 20 miles, but it was a gorgeous
lake. There are several lodges there and
we stopped in the Lake Louise Lodge and had a cup of soup and asked about
taking our kayaks in. We had been on the
fence about going anyway since it had been raining most of the trip, but they
said that a wind warning had just come in so they couldn’t allow us on the
lake. I guess we weren’t meant to be on
it today. He did suggest a short hike
from a camping area down the road and it was a short hike; we saw several piles
of moose scat but no moose, and the mosquitoes decided to pay a visit. Again, only biting me and only landing on
Andrew. Lake Louise must be the place to
go for fishing, as there are boats and boat trailers everywhere, waiting for
their owners to put them out in the water. There were also quite a few ice huts, waiting
on sleds for summer to be over already and the snow to fly! And snowmobiles making the same wish! In fact there were signs alerting drivers to
be aware of snow machines! Apparently
Eisenhower was there after the war for four days (He was supposed to only stay
one but he loved it so that he stayed four!).
It turns out Dad’s friend Tree Farmer’s lodge closed a few years ago so
we didn’t venture there at all. We
surprised a moose grazing on side of the road on our way out. He sort of jumped back when we slowed
down. I was a bit worried as they are
pretty powerful animals but this one was a smaller one and looked more
interested in eating then knocking us off the road.
On to Valdez and the amazing views. It occurred
to use we hadn’t seen the Alaskan Pipeline and we knew this was the end of the
line for it. It was there but elusive,
at the base of the mountains, just beyond our vision. The trees were much taller along this road so
it was probably there the whole time! I know it is hard to do it justice in just a
blog. But everything is so gorgeous
here. We pulled into Valdez and set up
our tent. The tent lot is a side part of the parking lot so it was complicated
getting tent stakes in, but we did. Campgrounds
aren’t too busy with tent campers-we are definitely a minority there! We had to aim it away from the parking lot so
we could have a view of nine glaciers, the bay, and wildlife (The attendant
assured me that bears don’t usually come up to the campground!). It rained hit and miss the entire way and was
only spritzing when we set up camp. Our
neighbor this evening is from Illinois! He
came up to go fishing with a buddy with a boat but said boat needs a few
repairs and they weren’t done yet, so he doesn’t know if he’ll wait it out or
not.
And miracles of all miracles: Valdez has 4 bars LTE so I can actually use
my phone as a hotspot and update this yet tonight!! Tonight here anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment