Glenn Highway

East of Palmer, Alaska – August 7, 2011

This morning we started out backtracking towards Valdez about 5 miles.  We wanted to go to the Visitors Center at Wrangle - St. Elias National Park (it was closed when we went by last night). This is the largest unit in the National Park system.  While there we toured the museum and took a hike through the Boreal forest.  The location of the Visitor Center is also where a portion of the old Valdez – Eagle trail still exists.  This is the trail that was once used to maintain the telegraph system that provided communication with Washington, D.C. without relying on a foreign country to relay messages.

Here also was an example of a fish wheel.  It is entirely powered by the flow of water in the river or creek to rotate the baskets that capture fish.

In Glennallen we stopped and had lunch at “The Freeze” where we saw these black flowers.

Along the way we had great views of the Chugach Mountain range.

In Sutton we stopped at the Alpine Historical Park.  It’s home to the remains of a coal washing station.  The Navy built this facility to provide coal for US Navy ships and it was completed just about the time the Navy switched over to oil to fire its ship boilers.  I think they call this “just in time obsolescence”.  The last picture is of an old post office.  Supposedly during the Christmas season the postmaster had to store packages in his car because the post office wasn’t large enough.

There are so many glaciers in Alaska.  This is the Mantanuska Glacier that runs right along the Glenn Highway for several miles.

Tonight we found this perfectly good abandoned campground.  Well it turns out it’s not abandoned, it is a state campground that is “passively managed”.  What that means is the state no longer spends any money to maintain it with the exception of a dumpster and a port-o-let.  That was fine with us, as it suited our needs just fine.

BG Miles Today	147	BG Total Miles	6145
Eat Out total $	619.98	BG Total Fuel $	3249.20
Entertainment total $	452.52	Total Camping $	935.91
E Miles Today	0	E Total Miles	1969.5
E Total Fuel $	421.22	Day # of Trip	68