Valdez to Palmer, June 29, 2009

When we left Valdez, we traveled over the same road as when we came, The Richardson Highway, except that half way up we turned west onto the Glenn Highway, going toward Anchorage. We drove all the way to Palmer, a city about 40 miles east of Anchorage, where we stopped for the night.

Here is another view of the Worthington Glacier at Thompson Pass north of Valdez. This time it was not raining so we could see both peaks of the surrounding mountains.

This is an attempt to show the Alpine Tundra of the Thompson Pass. It is very beautiful but doesn't really show up in a small photo. We saw this type of scene in several high passes but could not capture the beauty of it. It was like candy to the eyes! :-)

This is a view of the Alaska Pipeline as it gets ready to go over Thompson Pass to Valdez. It is a 48 inch diameter pipe which winds through three major mountain ranges as it travels from near Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. The highest range it goes over is 4,739 feet at Atigun Pass in the Brooks Range.

This is Pump Station 12 in Copper Valley where they have to pump the crude up and over Thompson Pass until gravity feeds it into the tanks at the terminus at Valdez. Every so often they have to run a clean-out type of machine through the pipeline.

This is Alaska Fireweed, an obnoxious weed here. It is a vibrant pink to lavender and very pretty along side the road.

This is the Tazlina Glacier as seen from the Glenn Highway, heading west. Remember that this is a river of ice that flows downhill continually carving out the valley. It's not just "snow that doesn't melt".

This is the biggest glacier we have ever seen - the Matanuska Glacier. We were able to see it for a long time. It just "flows' down the mountain, like a slow river!

This is called Gunsight Mountain because of the "notch" in the top of it like a gun sight.

This is another view of the massive Matanuska Glacier.

I really liked the colors on this mountain! I like the rust and the green.

This funny shaped mountain is called Glacier Point or Lion's Head. We are approaching the downhill side of the Matanuska Glacier, near the foot.

Here you can see the Matanuska Foot and as it appears as a river, winding down from the mountain top. In the forground is some of the debris (rocks and dirt) it has brought down and deposited. This is called moraine.

This is another view of the glacier & it's foot. This stuff is massive!

...and another!

This is the water off the glacier and makes the Matanuska River & valley. These glaciated rivers have silt supended in the water and range from milky white to a pretty aquamarine blue, depending on the minerals. They call the silt "Glacial Flour". You can look at a rivers color and know that it has glacial flour in it.