Me and You and a Dog Named Boo: North to Alaska: Tok to Valdez

Tok is a gateway to all of Alaska-you have to come through it coming and going. It was a major construction camp for the Alcan Highway in 1942 and now is a large service center with many gas stations, eateries and supply centers. We gassed up, passed up the famous "Fast Eddies" for some terrific Thai food from a food truck and headed on down the road towards Valdez. Very soon the highway winds through some beautiful views of the Wrangell Mountains.

We took the Tok Cut Off down to Valdez, stopping at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Visitor Center. This was a beautifully arranged center, with outside exhibits, a movie theater, outdoor exhibits, a nature trail and interesting information about the area. This is the largest national park in the country and it has 9 of the 16 highest mountains in North America! It is not easily accessible by road. We went down to Valdez first and then stopped in Chitina on our way back out.

This is a fishwheel. They are widely used along the Yukon and Copper Rivers
for catching salmon.

An example of a Cache, where certain household items
equipment and food stuffs are stored.

A trail through the woods with views into the park

The view into the park from the Visitor Center

I know I keep exclaiming about the scenery and every road seems to have us wondering which of all these fabulous highways has the best views. The trip down to Valdez was rainy and cloudy but that didn't stop the Richardson Highway from blowing our minds. This road was constructed during the stampede of 1898 and has been used as a footpath, a telegraph right of way, a wagon trail and now a highway for cars. It winds its way through several small towns and then climbs up the Edgerton Highway junction and follows the pipeline to Valdez. We saw it a few times-smaller than we thought. Below are some highlights of the mountains, waterfalls and glaciers we passed going over Thompson Pass, reminiscent of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Bridal Veil Falls

I love the glacier dust color of the water.

Worthington Glacier

When we arrived in Valdez (pronounced Valdeez), our planned-for campground was no longer and all that was available were downtown private RV parks, usually a nightmare to us, but today we were glad just to have a place close to town and the marinas to park Maxine. We loved this town, but couldn't take advantage of most of the sweet outdoor restaurants because of the weather. The town is reminiscent of a swiss ski area, except it is on the ocean. We walked to local restaurants for wonderful halibut fish and chips and local cod. We used our time to walk around the marina when the rain stopped, do our laundry and catch up on reading. We would have stayed longer but the forecast was for more and more rain.