NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAY 29 - THOMPSON PASS, KEYSTONE CANYON, VALDEZ

Today was going to be quite the adventurous day! 

We left Dry Creek Rec Site  and I was feeling better. We did a little grocery shopping in Glenallen at the IGA.  I thought it would be fun to videotape the entire shopping trip so you had an idea about some of the grocery prices. After I got all the video done and uploaded and put together I realized there was a problem. All of the store's background music was copyrighted music, and it was very recognizable. If I uploaded that video to YouTube it would get banned and I would probably get in trouble. 

So I might go through and re-edit the video and remove the sound and just try to save segments of it to show the prices. I don't know.

We also fueled up in Glenallen. We paid $4.12 a gallon for diesel fuel. That's not so bad. Our budget is $5 a gallon. We are doing really good with our fuel mileage. We did 15.67 miles per gallon.

We asked about filling our freshwater tank at the station. The attendant said absolutely not because all of the water in Glenallen is horrible. Nobody uses it and they all drive down to a little public watering station in the next town down the line, about 10 miles.

So we drove on down and turned right on Trailer Court Road and found the watering station. It takes quarters, and we first put in four quarters to start filling our tank. Part way through we needed to plug in an extra four quarters to finish topping it off.  All of the people in the area come here with water jugs to get fresh drinking water. Also large bulk tank trucks come and fill with water here. Then they go out and distribute it among residents who have larger holding tanks at their homes.

As we fill our tank, we always use an inline water filter. Afterwards Steve is careful to screw together both ends of our hose to keep it clean while it's in our storage compartment.

Once the water is in our fresh tank, whenever we need drinking or cooking water (or Nick's water bowl) we put it through another filtration system. This one is from LifeStraw. It is the same components and filters utilized for the people who go on missions out in the Third World countries to have safe drinking water. You can literally stick it in a muddy stream and it removes 99.99% of all the bacteria as well as any other harmful substances.

https://a.co/d/7ZCnzvA

Plus, the water tastes great! This is a glass picture that is similar to Pyrex and is very sturdy. We use it at home as well as take it long in the RV when we travel.

So much better than that plasticky taste from purchased water bottles. Plus we are keeping the water bottles out of the landfill.

One other purchase I forgot to mention during the week was we stopped at a very interesting shop and I bought some mucklucks that are made by Manitobah. These are made in Canada by the indigenous people and they are absolutely so comfortable. They have real rabbit for around the ankles and the foot portions are waterproof suede. The little bead work is so delicate and even but it's all hand stitched on. They are my new favorite things to wear around inside the camper on chilly nights. Toasty warm toes!

Once our water tank was filled, we started heading down the Richardson Highway towards Valdez. One of the first stops we made, by reading our milepost book, was to check out the pipeline.

This is the famous Trans Alaska Pipeline system built in the 1970s. It goes all the way from Prudhoe Bay in the north down to Valdez port in the south. Over 800 miles long. We just had to stop and check it out.

I remember learning about this in school. It was quite a feat to complete, and during the years of the oil embargo crisis, it was a necessity.

We got back on the Richardson Highway again. Although the previous sections of the Alcan had been ridden with potholes, or sections of gravel and construction, this highway was very different. 

It was pretty much fully paved. But the blacktop was like a ribbon that had been stretched and molded along the shape of the ground underneath. 

It was full of little roller coaster lumps and bumps. Some shifted you from side to side, some shifted you forward and backwards. It was like a three-dimensional roller coaster!

It literally went on for 

 miles and miles and miles. 

 It could almost make one seasick.

We stopped at Worthington Glacier. This was something we had marked on our maps that was an easy walk from the parking lot to the glacier. We had even bought ice cleats for over our boots to go climb up on a glacier. So we were looking forward to it. Imagine our dismay when we got there and the upper parking lot wasn't even plowed to get anywhere near the glacier. The snow was 3 or 4 ft deep in places and it was hollowed out and crusty. You couldn't even walk on it because you would sink down in it. So there was no way to even walk up to the glacier unless we had big snowshoes. Which we didn't.

As an alternative, we posed in front of it. The glacier is up over our shoulders.

Because of the snow all around us in the lower parking lot, Nicholas got to get out and romp around and play. What a silly little goose! I love the lower right photo the best...

I did make a little video clip of him romping around, 

as well as the ice water coming off the melting glacier. 

Here it is posted over on YouTube:

Now it was time to get back on the road. We headed further south towards Valdez. We were entering what was called Thompson Pass. The temperatures are still quite cold up there and they had just received a new blast of fresh snow the week before.

It was a Winter Wonderland of beauty. Like driving through a fairy tale land. 

Fortunately, the pavement was clear on the roads as they have been plowed repeatedly for commercial transportation to get through. This is a major artery and I guess it's pretty well maintained for snow removal. Once the sun shines on it, the pavement clears off and we had dry roads to drive on. 

We could see in the higher elevations above us that there was snow falling again. We weren't seeing it down where we were on the road, but it was definitely still piling up on the tops of those mountains.

Once we drove through Thompson Pass, we began our descent. Now this is coming up to the prettiest part of the highway into Valdez. It is known as Keystone Canyon. Breathtaking doesn't even begin to describe what we drove through. This portion of the state is actually a rainforest. The lush greenery and the beautiful waterfalls were totally amazing.

Words just don't do it. Video just don't do it, nor do photos. We have to trap this place in our memories and think about it for years to come. We have to remember the smells, the sounds, and the whole feeling of the place.

In one area there was the beginnings of a railroad tunnel. Nine companies began fighting over the rights or the ability to complete the tunnel so it never got finished. It was in the best interest of all of them, but nobody could agree. We were able to peek in the tunnel and we didn't see any bears.

Nor lions, nor tigers, according to Steve.

This was posted between the railroad tunnel and the beautiful waterfalls nearby. It kind of shows the stupidity of man, instead of working together, it dissolved into a gunfight.

We drove on a little further. The waterfalls were named Bridal Veil and Horsetail. But there were really about five or six other smaller falls in the same area.

There were little pull-off areas along the road that we can stop and get out and listen to the various falls. The booming of the water thundering down the sides of the canyon would vibrate the ground underneath your feet. You could even feel it in your chest like a big bass drum. 

As we continued our journey southward we soon came to the archway entrance into Valdez. This is a beautiful port town. Known for its exporting of the crude oil at the end of that long pipeline. It's also a port for tourism with large cruise ships that come and go. Fishing and wildlife viewing are also a main attraction. It is also the only open water port that is accessible during the winter time. 

We had our choice of four different RV parks within the town itself. Plus two others that were out of town. We were a little tired of traveling and decided we were going to nestle into an Adult's Only campground from the Bear Paw Company. They also have another campground in the middle of town for families. But we opted for the more quiet sites out in a little secluded area facing the port waters of Prince William Sound. It was raining when we pulled in, we paid and got settled in for the night. It was a splurge at $65 a night. But boy oh boy was it worth it in the morning when we opened up our front windshield curtains and saw this:

Yep, this was going to be our view for the next two days. Absolutely stunning. 

There were mountains all around the town on all three sides. Every window we looked out of, there was a mountain. The town is only a few blocks wide and maybe seven or eight blocks long. 

Can you imagine looking out at this scenery every time you do dishes or cook a meal or make some coffee?

The sun was shining all day long, which is kind of a rarity in this area. We really enjoyed looking at the textures and shapes as the sun moved across the mountains across from us. Different times of day it looked different from the way the sun played across the angles.

We were right near a large loading pier for the tanker ships that came in. They were actually bringing back in refined fuel that would be used for the residents of Alaska. It's interesting that this port is used to ship out the crude, as well as to accept the refined fuels. 

From our campsite, we could watch the tides come in and the tides go out. It was interesting how the shoreline scenery would change with each tidal movement. 

Also entertaining were the little bunnies hopping around in the campground. There were two adult black domestic bunnies and one little baby bunny of the same color. There were a couple brown rabbits that look more natural and perhaps were wild. All of them were accustomed to people. There was a bucket of rabbit food by the door to the main clubhouse and I think they are fed regularly. I think they are on site pets for the hosts?  If a dog came by, they just scampered underneath the porch and knew they were safe. But for people, they didn't even bother to move because they knew there was no way we could ever catch them! Lol 

I had pet rabbits as a child, and this was awfully fun to watch them hopping around.

We caught up a few loads of laundry and walked around taking care of errands.

I took some time to catch up traveling details in my journal. This lovely quilted journal was made by my friend Judy. A cup of coffee and a beautiful view out the window. Who could complain?

My mid-afternoon, a big cruise ship came into Port. We didn't see throngs of people like we did in Skagway. Instead most of them boarded buses to go off on tours. I believe they were on whale watching tours out in the water, or sightseeing tours up to Thompson Pass and through the Keystone Canyon.

There's a lot more to see in the area so I will continue that in another blog. 

Here is the video on YouTube so far that goes along with this post.

129 miles today 

3,709 miles so far