Great Alaskan Adventure

Part I

My boys and I – Will, Hickory and I, that is – just returned from a week-long road trip through Alaska’s interior.

I.did.not.want.to.come.home.

Our travels took us along the Glenn Highway to Lake Louise, into the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park along the Nabesna Road and then further into the Park via the McCarthy Road to McCarthy and Kennecott, two quirky towns perched on a glacier full of fascinating history.  We finished our trip in Valdez  where we took an incredible kayaking trip to the Columbia Glacier.

We weren’t sure how it would go traveling with our beloved dog.  I mean, we love him but we can hardly expect the rest of Alaska to love (tolerate) him quite as much as we do.

As it turns out, Hickory is the consummate traveling companion.  Quiet, contemplative – a true minimalist - he required few rest stops.  He did, though, every once in a while, get a little tired of the car and decide that his journey was done for the day.

Refusing to get in the car at a rest area

I took over three hundred photos and it’s hard to pick just which snow-capped mountain peak is more beautiful than the next.  But, I’ll do my best to whittle down my photos and write a recap of our trip in separate parts.

Lake Louise

After departing Anchorage late last Saturday, we made our way to the Lake Louise Lodge for our first night’s stay.  We dodged rain showers as we drove in and the skies parted just as we arrived at the lake.

Our little cabin (on the right)

The lodge was a little more jet-skis and big-game-on-the-walls than we anticipated, but the setting was hard to beat.

Sunset at 11:45pm

And it gave us just the rest we needed to set out for our next destination: the Nabesna Road of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Nabesna Road 

The 42-mile Nabesna dirt road led us through breathtaking mountain ranges and glaciers.  The Road was originally built in 1933 by the Alaska Road Commission to supply Nabesna Mine and to ship out its ore.  The journey was incredible for the scenery of course, but most astounding was that we were almost completely alone.  The road was rough in parts and we had to make several stream crossings.  But still, we were amazed that we had such an incredibly beautiful area all to ourselves.

Carefully testing one of our creek crossings.

Letting a native test a more perilous creek crossing first.    

The one establishment we saw along the road.

After journeying along the 42-miles, we traversed back a bit and found a nice camp spot at one of the newly refinished (and only) campsites along the road.

The mosquitos were beyond viscous.  Even poor Hickory had bites all over his stomach and by the end of the trip he just sat there, repeatedly snapping his jaw open and closed with the hopes of catching one of those pesky bugs.  I had over forty bites by the end of the trip…but who’s counting?

So, the rain showers that graced us on our first night camping were somewhat welcome because it meant our friends settled down a bit.  For a few moments at least…

 

We’re used to backpacking, having to carefully weigh each ingredient.  Car camping was quite luxurious this time.  I packed enough food for a month and we enjoyed some great meals throughout our trip.  First night: chicken fajitas.

My beloved oatmeal

Rocking my mosquito net

That’s just the beginning of our trip, but I’m going to save the rest for following posts.  This trip made one thing clear – we live in an astoundingly beautiful and diverse state.