To and From Valdez

Valdez is a long haul by land from everywhere in Alaska.  According to the Milepost, the quintessential road warrior's guide to driving in Alaska, Valdez is 366 miles from Fairbanks, just over 300 miles from Anchorage and a challenging 430 from Seward.   For those who are adventurous and perhaps tight on time, the Alaska Marine Highway offers ferry services for passengers and vehicles, including RVs.  Having priced the option back in 2010, I'll say taking a vehicle on the ferry can be pricey; an RV for us was cost prohibitive.









After leaving the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Area on Sunday morning, we had plenty of time to enjoy the drive and sights heading to Valdez.  We had a campground reservation for Monday night before our fishing trip, so Sunday night was open to whatever mood struck us.  But with the lousy weather including low clouds and heavy rain at times, we kept the drive to the essential route east on the Glenn Highway, connecting to the southbound Richardson into Valdez.

Wrangell Mountains

We did enjoy a short leg stretch and walk, along with lunch at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park visitor center in Copper Center.  While there, I enjoyed the 20 minute film while David handled matters back home with our house/dog sitters.  SIDE NOTE:  They had free WiFi inside this visitor center!

Worthington Glacier

I have never been over the Thompson Pass when there weren't low clouds and horrible visibility.   YIKES . . . you could barely see 100 yards in front of the motorhome.  That created equally poor photo ops of the Worthington Glacier and other views along our way.  But that didn't keep us from stopping and taking what photos we could.  One nice benefit from all of the rain were the spectacular waterfalls seen on the mountains . . . when you could see the mountains!

We arrived to Valdez around 3:00pm and took the opportunity to cruise down Dayville Road to the fish hatchery area in hopes of seeing bears or eagles.  Unfortunately, none were to be found in spite of the pink salmon filling the Soloman Gulch adjacent to the fishery.

We opted to boondock at a turnout on Dayville Road near the Lowe River Bridge.  Like our parking spot along the Parks Highway, this location was loud with tankers on the road throughout the night and early morning.  Mattered little, however as we were sleepy enough to sleep through the night.

We returned to the fish hatchery on our way out of town on Friday afternoon.  Again, no bears to be seen around noontime.  My friend Jan had good success in the area in the evening, having photographed a young sub-adult brown (grizzly) bear on her two visits (Monday and Thursday evening) as well as a cute black bear crossing the road on Thursday.

For the bears, the fish hatchery is literally a salmon buffet.  The number of pinks coming home to spawn was amazing.  It was particularly interesting to me that on Sunday evening, there were not nearly as many fish trying to enter the fishing weir as what we saw there just five days later.  Clearly "the fish were in" on Friday!  So much so, there were scads of dead fish who climbed up the salmon ladders only to have the fast current of the creek wash them down over the weir where they would die.

After our fishing trip with Jan & Eric, we headed "home" to Fairbanks via the Tok Cutoff with a 100 mile detour to camp in Tok.  We were fortunate to find the Golden Bear Campground at the Tok Junction.  There are several campgrounds and other services catering to the RV community passing through Tok as this is the only drive-able route into and out of Alaska's interior from the lower 48.  Other than the marine ferry, you cannot even drive to Anchorage without coming through Tok.

But for us, Tok is a necessary detour when we're traveling back to Wisconsin with fish as checked baggage on the airlines.  The Golden Bear CG has a nice large chest freezer where they have allowed us to store our two fish boxes.  At $30/night the detour is well worth it in order to get our fish home frozen.

The drive into Tok on the Tok Cutoff is an interesting trip with lots of beautiful mountains all around.  The road however, is in pretty rough shape due to tundra frost heaves.  The speed limit drops from 55 MPH to 25 or 30 with little notice.

There is a small Wrangell-St. Elias National Park ranger station right off the road in Slana.  We stopped there to stretch our legs, use the bathroom and stamp my NPS Passport book.

Many locals and tourists alike will advise against taking the side detour to Tok if not necessary.  For me, it's an interesting area to see, when you can see it.  For others, Tok is a fun spot along an Alaskan road trip.  Milepost refers to it as the "RV car wash capital of Alaska."  I can believe it since all vehicles making that long slog from Canada and/or the lower 48 of the US must pass through Tok.  By all reports, as bad as the Tok Cutoff may be, the ALCAN through Canada is said to be much worse.