Third day of the Alaska trip from September 3rd, 2007.

Alaska state route 2
A fogbow, just past Tetlin Junction.

Alaska state route 1
Mountains in the fog. Not that far north of Glennallen along highway 1.

Alaska state route 4
On the way to Valdez, along the Copper River.

Alaska state route 4
Worthington Glacier, as seen from the top of Thompson Pass. This panorama takes up about 130 degrees, and thus, the original image is really quite large (5850×3900 pixels, 13 megabytes). I stitched it together from four wide-angle shots.

Alaska state route 1
Mountains to the south of highway 1, between Glennallen and Anchorage.

Alaska state route 1
Sunset over the mountains.


Alaska state route 2, Alaska state route 5
Morning, somewhere around Tetlin Junction.

Alaska state route 2
Distant mountains. They are about 100 miles away in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Alaska state route 2
Another view of the fogbow at dawn.

Alaska state route 2
Why is there a goat drinking from a municipal puddle in front of a gas station in Tok Junction? Your guess is as good as mine.

Alaska state route 1
Highway 1 now, just after Tok Junction, heading south to Glennallen.

Alaska state route 1
Note how the highway seems to take a strange angle before disappearing over the hill. That’s not an illusion: thanks to frost heaves, more often than not the road is going in some direction its designers hadn’t quite intended.

Alaska state route 1
Alaska has the coolest truss bridges in the nation. Most were built – and built well – in the 1940s, and, thus they do this job to this day.

Alaska state route 1
Specialization at work.

Alaska state route 4
A lake. South of Glennallen, now, along highway 4 on the way to Chitina and Valdez.

Alaska state route 4
Why look at that, another lake. Lots of ’em in Alaska, especially in September when there aren’t quite as many ice patches.

Alaska state route 10
Up, then down, then up again. Highway 10 to Chitina.

Alaska state route 10
This is where the road starts to curve.

Alaska state route 10
Another lake, along highway 10.

Alaska state route 10
A little red plant by the shore of a lake. Getting close to Chitina.

Alaska state route 10
Now that is a rock cut. It’s about ten feet wide. Yep, this is one of Alaska’s numbered, primary highways. Just past the town of Chitina on route 10, heading into Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Alaska state route 10
Distant mountains, visible as we make it through that rock cut.

Alaska state route 10
Back westward through the rock cut. It’s time to turn around, because the road beyond to the east gets progressively muddier and muddier. At some point, it’s probably some stepping stones across the water, and after that it’s Jesus time.

Alaska state route 10
That sign looks like it’s been there a while.

Alaska state route 10
Remember that long, straight section coming in?

Alaska state route 4
Another cute little bright-leaved plant. Alaska has plenty of these.

Alaska state route 4
Oh dear, it be raining. This happened, off and on, throughout the day.

Alaska state route 4
An airplane, decisively cutting the sun in half. Worthington Glacier in the foreground.


This is how we get back to the airport on time.

Alaska state route 4
About here is when I gave up trying to decide if clouds were ominous, or just strange. These pitch-black ones didn’t yield a single drop of rain.

Alaska state route 1
Distant glaciers. Prince William Sound, with the peaks about eighty miles away, as seen from Highway 1 between Glennallen and Anchorage. Starting to inch towards sunset.

Alaska state route 1
Now these clouds certainly are providing rain.

Alaska state route 1
Why is this road even more demented and frost-hoven than average? Because it’s an old alignment! Pretty recently abandoned – about ten years ago, at most – but an old alignment just the same.

Alaska state route 1
The road to sunset.

Alaska state route 1
Dark road back to Anchorage. One hour to get back to the airport!

Alaska state route 1
Getting back to civilization. Nice high beams, champ.

Alaska state route 1
Get gas, pack, drop off rental car, and back down south we go.

Next up? Maybe some Oklahoma photos from last week. Whatever I decide, they’ll be posted after I return from my upcoming South Dakota trip.