RVing With Poppa: Moving On...Valdez and Beyond

July 8-9, 2014

Monday afternoon, after literally coming down out of the clouds from our glacier landing trip, we packed up and moved from Talkeetna to Palmer. As planned, Rich and Mary were waiting on us at the Fred Myers store, our campground, for the night.

On Tuesday, we were up and ready to roll. After meeting up with Wallace and Wanda, Bennit and Bea, we headed out the Glennallen Highway...destination...Valdez.

We hadn't traveled too far down the

road, when this nice road turned into

this road...and these

were the only directions we had for what seemed like many miles!

However, the scenery was

beautiful, as usual. And,

after all the ups and downs, we found this

great pull out.

It was nice to stop and

stretch.

While we were there,

Claire, senior editor for The Milepost pulled in. We had fun visiting with her about our travels. She gave us all new Milepost books (the bible for Alaskan travel) and she

took our picture beside the truck! Who knows, we might be famous some day.

Soon we left behind the Glennallen Highway and intersected the Richardson Highway...

turning right for Valdez. For awhile, I thought we were

lost in the forest and the road construction, but, then, the

beauty of the rivers and mountains come back into view.

The drive into Valdez was amazing. We saw

glaciers,

canyons,

waterfalls, and

caves carved in glacier ice.

We even found

snow beside the roadway along Thompson Pass. I had to remind myself that it is July! But, also realize that as the

beautiful fireweed blooms to the top, in Alaska, that means summer is over. So, I doubt that the snow on Thompson Pass will completely melt before the new snow returns.

Traveling on into Valdez, we signed into

Bayside RV Park. Basically, it is a

big parking lot, as are a lot of the campgrounds in Alaska. The sites were nice, level, and we had 30 amp service with full hook-ups. Wallace, Wanda, Bennit and Bea are staying for the week to fish. The rest of us are here only for the night.

We set up, got the laundry done, and walked to town for a nice dinner. Afterwards, we drove a little ways out of town and around the sound. We heard that the bear come to feed there. And, they do, but, we were too late to see them. But, we did have fun watching the

sea lions catch the fish for their dinner.

And, every where we looked, we saw

eagles sitting in the trees.

It was a

beautiful night in Valdez.

July 9, 2014

After a leisure morning, we had our hugs and see you later with Wallace, Wanda, Bennit, and Bea. It's been great guys, and hope to see you down the road. And, good luck fishing!

As for the the rest of us, we headed out of town. We made a stop by

this old train tunnel.

This is the sign

outside the entrance.

We also saw the debris that was left from the

avalanche that closed off Valdez for a week or so.

This afternoon, we made a stop by the

Wrangell-Elias National Park. This park is the biggest in the national park system with 13.2 million acres of wild land and 9.7 million acres of designed wilderness. It is home to the beautiful