We were picked up at 10 am from the RV park by Captain Fred Rodolf, a spry 80 year old, for our all day cruise to the Columbia Glacier on board the Lu-Lu Belle, a plush 57 foot boat with mahogany trim and oriental carpets. We set sail about 11 am. Directly across from Port Valdez is the terminus of the Trans Alaska Pipeline and thus began the Captain’s narration. When completed in 1977, the pipeline carried 2 million barrels a day. Now it carries only 500,000 to keep it flowing before the oil in Prudhoe Bay is exhausted. The pipeline has no heating ability so it must continue to flow or else it would freeze and have no way of restarting. A new oil field has been discovered that is estimated at 12 times larger than Prudhoe Bay. As we continued at about 17 knots, Captain said he must slow to idle speed not to wake the dozens of otters asleep on their backs (known as a "raft" of otters) just ahead in the water. Onward to the Valdez Narrows where countless salmon fishing boats were plying their trade as the season for pink salmon had just opened the past week. We stopped to observe one boat haul in its catch. As we entered Prince William Sound we cruised along Glacier Island and saw hundreds if not more sea lions on the beach and in the water. They were making quite a racket. Further along the islands shore were some cave formations. The Captain maneuvered the Lu-Lu Belle partially into a cave within a couple feet of the rocks to give everyone a view of the puffins inside. We saw both horned puffins and tufted puffins. We also saw a bald eagle. Then we headed to the glacier. As we cruised, we passed numerous icebergs and then a turn around one mountain and there was the Columbia Glacier. We approached the glacier within less than a quarter mile and stopped in the very calm, almost like glass, water to take photos. We hung around there for close to 2 hours during which we saw an incredible amount of calving. One series of many small calves lead to a giant one which the Captain said was the largest he had seen in doing this tour for 41 years. And I got it on video! Make sure you request to see it when we get together. After the huge calving the entire water around the glacier front was heaving up and down and ice surrounded us which the Lu-Lu had to push out of the way to get back. Lots of Titanic jokes were heard among the guests. Some gals were very concerned but the Captain took it slow. On the way back, we saw some Dall Sheep on a mountain side. Hard to believe they can get around on the steep cliffs. The Captain continued his narration which he had kept up almost the entire time until our return at 7:30 pm. A truly memorable day which left us excited well into the evening. So we decided to head to the salmon fishery at 11 pm to see if the bears may be there as the pink salmon were running. We gave it awhile but no bears sighted. We finally turned in at 12:30 am and it was still not dark. We are truly in the land of the midnight sun.
Day 96, July 6, 2019, Saturday. Valdez, AK (94 miles)
We continued to head south toward Valdez along the Richardson Highway. The road was plenty rough. On the way we stopped at several viewpoints including one of the Trans Alaska Pipeline (Prudhoe Bay to Valdez) but it was in the distance so no good photos. We stopped at the Worthington Glacier, Bridal Veil Falls and Horseshoe Falls all located within 30 miles of Valdez. We arrived at the Eagle Rest RV Park about 3:10 pm and checked in (fhu 50 amp). At 3:45 we went back to the office to schedule some tours. We scheduled a boat cruise for tomorrow and were planning a helicopter landing on a glacier for the day after but after talking to the vendor, VS Helicopters, we agreed on 4:30 that day. We hurried over to the airport and began our flight. It happened so fast that Rosemary did not have time to get too nervous. The flight was smooth and lasted about 70 minutes. The views were spectacular. As we climbed over the green side of the mountain and in view of the ice fields it was like another world - nothing but white and some black rock. We then flew from the top down the Shoup Glacier and landed right on the glacier. The wind was blowing at 26 knots as we walked on the ice. Many cracks and holes which appeared bottomless. Many streams of water flowing down the glacier and we dipped our cups in the stream to drink glacier water but not too much as it was ice cold as was the weather. Rosemary wore 3 jackets including both of her down jackets and was still freezing. On the ride down to the bottom of the glacier we continued along green mountains and saw some mountain sheep. A fantastic experience I highly recommend.
Day 95, July 5, 2019, Friday. Edgerton Highway mile 7.8 (175 miles)
And so we began our trip over the Tok Cut Off, a 125 mile road south. We have been warned that the road is bad but the only other alternate path adds 5.5 hours to our travels. We go slow and stop at the north ranger station of Wrangel-St.Elias National Park and National Preserve in Slana. It is the largest national park in the U.S. with over 13,000,000 acres. We parked the coach and took the car onto Nabesna Road which is 16 miles of so-called pavement and then unpaved for 26 miles. We had hoped to get a good view of Mounts Sanford (16,000 ft.), Wrangel (14,000 ft.) and Drum (12,000). We stopped at a few scheduled places for a view but each was partially obstructed. We turned around after 18 miles just passed Dead Dog Hill. Back in the coach we continued on the Tok Cut Off another 60 miles with a 14 mile construction zone which left the coach and car covered in mud. I figured the 125 mile Tok Cut Off took us about 3.5 hours driving time. We joined the Richardson Highway to the Park’s visitor center in Copper Center arriving just minutes before it closed with the rangers already to close the place down so we did not get any additional park info other than there were some pull offs on the Edgerton Highway which was the road for the south part of the park. We parked the coach in the pull off at mile 7.8 which had 3 other rv’s already there. After dinner, we set out in the car for the additional 26 miles to Chitina where the pavement ends. Finally, we got great views of the 3 mountains including a great view of Wrangel. Wrangel is an active volcano with a snow covered dome but we did not see any steam as can sometimes be present. We also saw a waterfall on the way. After Chitina, there is a 62 mile unpaved road that warns take at your own risk to McCarthy and the abandoned Kennecott Copper Mine which was the largest copper mine at one time. The road began through a narrow cutout of a mountain and we could not resist going through but we turned around in less than a mile.
Day 94, July 4, 2019, Thursday. Tok, AK (250 miles)
An extremely quiet night, no train whistles could be heard! We continued west on the Alaska Highway. The area is known for frost heaves so we cruised at 45 mph with lots of braking at rough spots and heaves. We saw our first grizzly bear, a beautiful animal much larger than the black bears we have seen. Unfortunately, he was too quick for a photo. We crossed back into Alaska and had our grapes confiscated but saved other fruits by squeezing or freezing. We got our photos of the welcome to Alaska and this time the welcome to Yukon as well (although we were leaving Yukon) . The first part of the highway in Alaska was terrible with none of the frost heaves marked. Saw a moose but again no photo. We arrived in Tok and after a visit to the visitor center, checked into the Tok RV Village (fhu 50 amp). I am writing this at midnight and it is still not dark.
Day, 93, July 3, 2019, Wednesday. Alaska Highway mile marker 1024, near Kluane Lake in Yukon Province (245 miles)
After another early wake up call by the train whistle, we departed Skagway and headed north on the South Klondike Highway. After 3 miles we began an 11 mile incline to the summit at 3,240 feet. Beautiful scenery with several pull offs for photos. We stopped at so many sites that the first hour we only traveled 18 miles. Some of that was due to slow speeds up the incline. After the summit it was all downhill but we continued to make many stops. We crossed back into British Columbia, Canada, but did not bother to change our clocks since we expected to be back in Alaska tomorrow. We did not get a photo of the welcome to Yukon as the tour buses from the cruise ships filled up the pull out. We stopped in Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon with a population of about 34,000 to grocery shop as it was the biggest town we would see for about 2 weeks. Then we continued onward west on the Alaska Highway. We stopped in a large paved pull out next to Kluane Lake and spent the night among the mountains surrounding the lake.
A nice quiet campground this is NOT. The train whistle started regularly at 5:45 am. In the morning we walked around the historical town which is quite hysterical. Although many original buildings still exist from the beginning of the1898 gold rush and are used today as storefronts, many others have a false facades made to look like they were in 1898 complete with wooden sidewalks. It looked like a movie set for an old western movie. But it was done well. Many of the old buildings are part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. We took a ranger-led tour titled “Gold Rush 101" where we learned all about the gold rush. Gold was discovered in Dawson City, Yukon, in 1896. When word got out in 1898, 100,000 stampeders headed toward there. However, only 2 trails existed to get there, the Chilkoot Trail from Dyea and the White Pass Trail from Skagway. Chilkoot was 33 miles but was a steep climb of 1,000 feet. White Pass was 44 miles but only 400 feet of elevation climb. Canada required each stampeder to have a ton of supplies in order to survive the winter when crossing the border. This meant 30-40 trips for a stampeder to bring all of his supplies. When the stampeders got to the trail ends, they still faced a a 550 mile long route up the river to get to Dawson City. By the time they got to the river, it was winter and frozen. So they had to hunker down for the winter and then build a boat from trees which were 5 miles away. By the time most stampeders reached Dawson City, prospectors in the region had long since staked claims to the known gold fields. The end result was several hundred found gold but only 10 made enough to be considered wealthy and only 4 got rich! In the meantime, investors built the White Pass & Yukon Railroad from Skagway to Whitehorse, Yukon, from 1898 to 1900 which put an end to the town of Dyea. The gold rush ended in 1900 but Skagway made itself into a tourist destination which continues today. Today the town of 1,000 survives from tourism. Today there were 5 cruise ships in dock with 15,000 tourists. The big draw is the train. We took the train in the afternoon which is a 3 hour ride out about 21 miles to the summit of White Pass at 2,888 feet and back. The ride was outstanding with views of snow capped mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, lakes and more. Dinner at Olivia’s at the Skagway Inn, a building which housed a brothel back in the day was fantastic - a pound of king crab, halibut chowder and salad. Although Skagway may be a tourist trap, it was a very pleasurable one.
A very early start at 4:50 am as we had to be in line for our ferry at 6:15 am. We arrived about 6:00 am, checked in and ate breakfast in the coach. Like the ferry from Ketchikan, we had to separate the car only this time I could pull forward into the ship, the Columbia, and turn around inside the ship to back into my assigned space. I attached the car before we left the car deck. Our stateroom had a window and was much improved over the Malaspina. I could actually sit on the lower bunk without hitting my head on the upper bunk. Smooth sailing to Skagway. We arrived at 3:15 and then checked into the Pullen Creek RV Park (WE 50 amp) which is right next to the docks. Our first outing was a drive to the Gold Rush Cemetery. We visited the graves of bad guy Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith and good guy Frank Reid. Soapy Smith was the town con man who got his nickname by selling soap with the “chance” to win $500 contained within one of the soap packages. The only winners were Soapy’s assistants in the audience. He finally was challenged to a duel and was shot dead by Reid. Unfortunately, Reid was also hit by Soapy’s shot and died 12 days later. We took a short walk through the cemetery to view the Lower Reid Falls.
No comments:
Post a Comment