Closing the Loop (Glennallen, Valdez, Tok, AK)

August 18, we left Seward and headed back north to Anchorage. John made an appointment at the alignment center where we had new ball joints put in a month ago. The RV pulled slightly to the left and he wanted it adjusted. We stayed at the Golden Nugget Campground again (in our opinion, the best private RV park in Anchorage).

While John was conducting his business, Pris bought an Anchorage newspaper and read that the ferry Columbia had mechanical trouble and was being taken out of service for the rest of the season. Yup, out of 11 ferries, that was the one that was to take us back to the states. We got a new booking, but we could only get to Prince Rupert BC, and then we’d have to drive the last 900 miles to the U.S. border.

Our business completed, we started our drive back home by leaving Anchorage on Tues, August 21. Driving out of Anchorage, we again saw the moose warning signs. Last winter, 261 moose were killed on this section of the Glenn Highway. Alaska residents can sign up for road kill and get the killed moose. (Another big thing is that residents can get subsistence permits to hunt moose, caribou, and bear.). This really is the “last frontier”.

We had originally planned to attend the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, but we altered our plans and decided to head down the road and possibly catch an earlier ferry (if there were any cancellations).

We stopped at the Palmer post office and picked up our general delivery mail. Thanks to Jeff and Damilya for always forwarding our mail. We also met up with Melinda, whom we had met earlier, because she was interested in seeing a Lazy Daze RV. Thank you Melinda and Doug for the great halibut and rock fish. We had the delicious halibut that night. I will think about our “Alaska friends” every time I use the hand woven dish towel.

(Alaskans are very friendly people.)

We drove an additional 150 miles to just outside Glennallen to the Tolsona Wilderness Campground. We had a secluded spot right on Tolsona Creek. This was a great campground, more like a state campground (large sites, spread apart, lots of vegetation). The parks are less crowded now because school has started in Alaska and most tourists have started heading back to the “lower 48”.

We were able to change our ferry reservation and get out of Haines a few days earlier, but we still had time to kill. So we decided to visit Valdez. We had heard great things about the drive down. Indeed, the ride was spectacular with numerous glaciers, high mountain peaks, and shear rock canyons with cascading waterfalls.

Valdez is ringed by beautiful peaked mountains and glaciers, although we did not see them because of the rain. The RV parks in Valdez were another story. To our RV friends: take the ferry between Whittier and Valdez, enjoy the drive from Valdez north, and skip staying in Valdez.

Valdez, of course, is known for the Exxon Oil spill and this was the town closest to the epicenter of the 1964 (9.2) earthquake. The town was destroyed and has been relocated to a new site.

August is the rainy month in Alaska and we are starting to experience more consistent rain. We left Valdez (in the rain) on Thurs., August 23, and doubled back up the Richardson Hwy. This is one of the few times that we have covered the same ground. Anyway, we once again crossed over Thompson Pass (2,678 ft)-seems MUCH higher than that. It is known for its extreme skiing. It has the record snowfalls for the North American continent; with over 900 inches of snow for a year and 62 “ in a 24 hour period.

We continued back to Glennallen and then we took the Tok cutoff and followed the Copper River to Tok. We arrived in Tok, completing our driving circle of Alaska. (We were here over 2 months ago.)