Paxson Lake to Valdez

Paxson Lake to Valdez

We have done a lot of traveling in the rain, and in temperatures that are in the 40’s every morning.  Today was no exception.

When we left Paxson Lake, we almost immediately came upon Meiers Lake Roadhouse, and this little church.  I peaked in the windows and it is an active church with two large pews that seat about 40.  The stained glass window has a large peacock on it, and I was curious as to how this came about.  Not quite an Alaskan bird.

Nearby there was a doghouse with antlers on the top.








We entered into the Copper River area, and there were several things we wanted to see, but since we have to come back on this road, we continued on toward Valdez.  The Alaska Range is visible from here, but the clouds are low and we are hoping we will be able to see more on the return trip.

The road was suddenly surrounded by mountains, and off in the distance, we could see the Worthington Glacier.  It is really pretty and it kept changing as we saw it from many different perspectives.

We always seen to encounter bicyclists in the least probable places, and marvel at these hardy souls.

When we got to the glacier, they had a visitors’ center.  There was snow on the ground.

The visitors’ center employee has had this job for 10 years.  She has been in Alaska for 45 years, having coming as a young bride with a new baby and a husband in the service.  It was the middle of winter and he got them situated, and then went to Thailand.  So, she went through the winter alone.  Upon his return, she overheard him telling a buddy that Alaska was his first choice for an assignment.  She thought he had NO choice!  They only had the one child, and divorced, but she stayed in Alaska.  Her son is in Atlanta and is having a hard time adjusting to the flat country, but the ex-husband’s “newest wife” thinks this woman will stay here until she dies. She says, “she’s probably right.”

Nacho liked having his picture taken at the glacier, and then turned to the other side, which was just as pretty.

Within a mile after we left the glacier, we hit a small patch of fog.   We were on Thompson Pass.  This pass holds the record for snow extremes for the State:  974.3 inches for a season, 298 inches for a month, and 62 inches within one 24-hour period!

Then we were at a viewpoint that was 360 degrees.  We could see the river valley below, and more mountains all around.  It was actually spectacular!  We stopped at a campground at Blueberry Lake for more pictures of the vistas, and saw Marshall Pass in the distance, famous for a 70 ton river steamer that was taken piece by piece over the Pass by horse drawn freight sleds. It was 110 feet long!    It plied the 170 miles of the Copper and Chitna rivers, with construction crews and equipment for the railway.  It also hauled equipment for the Kennecott Copper Mine.

All of a sudden there was a seven and a half mile drop into the valley, and we were in the Keystone Canyon, with Bridal Veil Falls on our left, Horse Tail Falls on our right, and a number of other falls, dropping into the Lowe River.   There was an elderly could there who had come from Haines on these recumbent bicycles!

We covered about 175 miles today, and the last 15 miles were mind numbing in terms of their beauty.   We were in Valdez before we knew what had happened!