Palmer, a Hit and a Miss

Road Side Pull out near Eureka Roadhouse, AK – August 8, 2014

We made the move to Palmer and zeroed in on a pull out near the Matanuska River Bridge. Days End indicated this was suitable for big rigs, but we found the drop offs from the paved road to be a little too drastic for Big Guy. But the access road had an area where we could park temporarily while we took the Element to search for a more suitable spot.

We checked out the Matanuska Park, a city run campground and found it to be an acceptable alternative. But before we make the move, we decide to explore Palmer and see if there is enough to keep us occupied for an extra day.

We check out Friday Fling, a small Farmers Market, and find some huge vegetables.

We make a few small purchases, cauliflower and golden raspberries. There were two containers of raspberries, but they went very quickly. You couldn’t eat just one!

We get a couple of Thai spring rolls from one of the vendors for a light lunch. Then we walk over to the visitor center and it’s gardens. The bounty grown here is harvested and supplied to the local food bank to help out those in need.

The flowers and vegies are so hugh and colorful.

Now that’s a patch of greens.

We walk around searching for ‘town’ and find several restaurants and bars, but not much else. However, Palmer does have a brewery and we go off to find it. It turns out to be in an industrial area, like several other we’ve visited.

We sample several brews and talk with some locals. They only have 3  varieties and we like two. I’m sorry that my growler is full and I have no room for another. Oh well, our sampling complete, we head back to Big Guy. We’ve decided we’ve ‘done’ Palmer and might as well head on down the road.

We pass by the Matanuska Glacier. It’s chosen #2 as the best glacier to visit by Alaska Magazine. It is another state rec area that is handled by a concessionaire. Guess we’ll pass on it this time.

Our day is about done as we are approaching the roadside pullout we’ve selected for the evening. We pass these multicolored mountains as we near our night camp.

Tomorrow we’ll find a spot to hang out just north of Valdez.