July 30, Richardson Highway to Valdez

We left Tangle Lakes  for Valdez, via the Richardson Highway.  There were sunny skies this morning and I was a little reluctant to leave Tangle Lakes and the Denali Highway.  There is so much to see and do.  The road is good..in fact ,if I ever return I would not hesitate to drive my Born Free on the road and dry camp along the way.  There are lots of spots to pull off and camp and explore.  

We stopped at the junction for the Glenn Highway and Richardson Highway to get gas.  We had heard Valdez had some of the most expensive gas in Alaska.  The Tesero Station was busy and their computer system was working on some of the pumps so the stop took a little longer than usual..

The next stop was at the new Wrangell-St. Elias National Park visitor center for information.  Nancy and I are planning a side trip into the park, perhaps staying overnight at McCarthy or Kennecott.  The visitor center  is new with lots of information and ranger programs but we obtained the information we needed and will return for a more in depth look at the visitor center on our way back from Valdez.  

  Views of the Wrangell Range

The drive to Valdez is stunning...really!! Even with partially cloudy skies it was beautiful.  We drove through more "drunken forest".  The trees look like Dr. Seuss trees due to the heaving of the perma frost. 

 We stopped at Thomson Glacier and then it started to get a little cold a windy so we didn’t walk on the glacier.  

There were not many pull offs on the highway ....

                                     Thompson Glacier

We continued on to Valdez and ended up at the Glacier View campground which is a city campground run by the  military.  The sites were good, but very buggy and everything was wet and muddy from all of the rain.  

We drove into town and had diner at Mikes Palace, recommended by one of the locals.  It was OK, but did not compare with the dinner I had at Rays in Seward.  We then checked out some of the other campgrounds in the area including Addison Point, the other city campground and the Elks club.  None of the public campgrounds are close to town.  Glacier and Addison Point are both about 10 miles from the down town area.  The Elks club is close, but crowded.