Random Campground to Anchorage

That's right, I made it.

The random campground I was at last (the other night, now) night was somewhere near Tok, AK (pronounced Toke, not Talk like I was saying it. oops!). I find myself pronouncing things wrong a lot. I was saying Kenai with a soft E, when it's supposed to be pronounced KEE-nie. I went to the Matanuska Glacier yesterday and I'm afraid to try a pronunciation of that one.

The ride within Alaska was stunning. There were snowy mountains visible the entire time. Once again, I wanted to stop every minute for a picture. I didn't stop as much as I wanted because I was running lower on gas than I wanted to be and wanted to conserve. I had a repeat of my gas experience toward the end of Canada. It's really early in the season so a lot of places haven't opened yet. I did have a handy little guide which I wrote about before, called The Milepost. It tells me where there are campgrounds, gas, recreation like trails and fishing, and will tell me about vegetation and landscape, where to watch for animals and to prepare for road grading etc. It's a pretty comprehensive guide and it covers just about every road in Alaska and the major routes up there through Canada. I wasn't able to use it as much as I wanted in Canada, but I got a handle on using it later on in my ride. Interesting stuff.

Early in the morning I woke up and started out. It was really nice to get to see the sun come up. It came up behind me so it was shining on the mountains, giving me some great views. Because of how early I left I also got to see some more animals. It's common to see them at dusk and dawn. I saw a lone moose hanging out by the side of the road and then a bit later saw two of them, one on either side of the road. I stopped the car in hopes of getting a picture to post, but the one I had a good view of trotted away. It amazes me that they're afraid of humans, that is until I realize I'm in a car that's a lot bigger than a human. . . so I'm not really sure how I stand on that one.
I also saw lots more bunnies. They were just so tiny. I wanted to get a picture of one of them, too, but they were far too fast. every once in a while one would stay where he was on the side of the road when I passed, but there was no way to know which ones were going to run and I wasn't about to stop for every single bunny to try to get a picture. There were a lot of
them, I'm sure I'll see more.

So, back to the mountain views. I hit one sizeable community before the Anchorage metro area, called Palmer. Palmer is surrounded by these giant mountains that overwhelm the scenery because palmer is relatively flat. Most communities are in in the valley. If you do a google image search you'll see what I mean by the mountain view overwhelming the scenery. It looks like the mountain is practically on top of you until you realize you're in a valley that's miles wide.

Some of the best views were when I was driving through the last set of mountain roads I needed to hit before Anchorage. Most of the mountain roads I've hit so far have been over and between the mountains for the most part with the occasional road carved into the side of one. This last mountain road was a REAL mountain road, carved right into the side the whole way. I think it's that way because putting the road further south and out of the way of the mountains a bit would have plopped it right into a valley which a glacier empties into, which wouldn't be so great. The river varies in size quite a bit from season to season because of the glacial runoff. I actually stopped at the Matanuska Glacier Nat'l Park. There was a sign that said "Yes, We're Open" at the entrance, so I went in. The access road is beyond scary. It's also carved into the side of the mountain, winding back and forth, because you need to drive down into the valley. Above you the 'mountain' is made up of mostly dirt, not rock. Every second you feel like it's going to come tumbling down on you. There were cracks in the dirt that made it seem unstable. You can't hurry on that road, though, because it's bumpy and small.

Once I got down to the Park it was a little weird. It didn't seem very official. There was an old building with a gift shop and an old dog on the porch. There were lots of little trinkets around the front yard. I went up to the front door because you're supposed to go in and pay, but it wasn't opened until 9am and it was 7am. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal if I just walked out there. It isn't like there's a gate you have to walk through or anything, it's nature, not an amusement park. I started my walk. Past a few horses that lived there, past a big old army vehicle, past a crude painted sign that advertised the glacier cafe and lodge - If you can call saying "warm beer, cold food" and "almost too close [to the glacier]" as advertisement - then I made it to the access road. It was just a dirt road wide enough for a car, maybe two. I walked for a little bit, singing to myself again to avoid bears. Finally I took a look at where I was on GPS because I was looking at the glacier and it seemed awfully far away. according to GPS, it was. I think the trail was a few more miles or so. I decided to turn around and come back someday when it's open because I figured it wasn't really safe to be out there completely alone. Bears, springtime glacial melt and the unpredictability of water, etc. It just didn't seem like a good idea. I went back and headed out. so lame.

After the almost glacier viewing is where it gets really interesting. On the way up out of the park I took some pictures of the cracking dirt above, which I'll post. I'm surprised they don't do something to make it a little safer seeming. Anyways, I was back on the road. Because I was on the side of a mountain, I saw sign after sign that said "slide area," which is equivalent to "falling rock" at home. I entered an area which was 25 miles of these mountain roads. at the entrance there was a sign saying that it's illegal to hold up more than 5 cars on the road and that you MUST use a turnout to let them pass you. I LOVE that. Of course if there was traffic I would have been the slow car, but at home I'd Love that law. There was also a sign soon after that said "few turnouts, next 25 miles," and then another sign soon after that said "VERY few turnouts next 25 miles." VERY was underlined and everything. There was some good signage.

There was a car a little ways behind me so I pulled over and waited for him to reach and pass me because I didn't want to hold him up with my sightseeing. He wasn't going much faster than me, but I was okay with it. He was just far enough ahead of me that I caught glimpses of him through the winding every once in a while. Suddenly I came around a corner and had to SLAM on my brakes. I will never ignore another Falling Rock sign. There was a rock slide right into the road. It must have happend seconds before I got there because the guy in front of me made it through the road. I could also see little bits of rock still tumbling down. I parked there in front of it for a minute wondering what the hell to do. Do I try to drive around it? No, that would put me too close to the edge of the road and I don't know how soft the dirt is there. I finally decided to get out and move enough of the big rocks so that I could get by. I didn't want to be there any longer than I had to. As I was moving my first rock a car came from the other direction. It was a guy and his son. They saw the road was impassable and got out to help move rocks. The first words out of his mouth were "what did you do!" I laughed and then he said "never seen this before." I was glad to hear it wasn't a common thing in Alaska.

We spent a bit moving all of the rocks. There were a good amount of them, some so big that we had to roll them because we couldn't lift them. Every once in a while we'd have to move aside because a few more rocks would fall. Luckily all small ones. Once the road was passable we said a hurried goodbye and thank you and went to our respective cars because we didn't want to be there any longer than needed. I'm still a little amazed by it. Because of when it happened I just missed the slide. If I had been driving slightly faster I don't know what would have happened. If rocks were tumbling down toward me it isn't like I'd be able to swerve around them if I'm on the side of a mountain. It makes me wonder what my reaction would have been. It seems the best thing to do would be to let the rocks hit you because they weren't big enough to push my car or anything, but at the same time I think that the reaction I have built into me is to swerve to avoid objects so I probably would have done just that, given a split second to react. Luckily I was driving the speed I was and wasn't a few seconds ahead of schedule. I'm also lucky I was looking at the road and not the view!

After my harrowing experience (ha! I was actually a little giddy about it because 1. I didn't get hurt and 2. that isn't something you see everyday) I made it to Anchorage without a hitch. I'll write about Anchorage in another post. This one is certainly long enough.