The Matanuska Glacier.
We left San Francisco at 20:15 on Thursday, July 21, transferred in Portland, and arrived in Anchorage at 1:30 on Friday, July 22, my mother's birthday. The arrival time was not my idea. I had booked a direct flight to Anchorage that would have landed at 23:30, but it was canceled and we were rebooked with this less desirable itinerary a couple of months before the trip. Despite our late arrival, there was still enough light to see Anchorage, surrounded on either side by the Knik and Turnagain Arms, from the air.
We got in on time, and a shuttle picked us up and brought us to the Ramada, where we spent the rest of the night and had a lovely waffle and wi-fi breakfast in the morning. Another shuttle brought us to Thrifty, where we picked up a 2010 Sonata with 54,000 km (33,600 mi) on the odometer. Our itinerary came with a mid-size car and, while we probably could have saved some money by getting a smaller one, our poor packing skills made the larger car desirable.
The plan for the day was to drive the scenic Glenn Highway from Anchorage to Glennallen and then down the Richardson and Edgerton Highways to Chitina. The highway proceeds through the lovely Chugach State Park and then runs along the Matanuska River, through the valley carved by the retreating Matanuska Glacier, with the Chugach Mountains to the south and the Talkeetna Mountains to the north. Eventually, it passes the Matanuska Glacier and the Eureka Summit, and continues to Glennallen on the Copper River at the west edge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. It's not quite Yosemite Valley, but it's still pretty stunning. We could not have asked for better weather than we got.
Because of our need to make up sleep time from a night spent partially in an airplane, and to stock up on car snacks for the road and deli sandwiches for lunch at a Safewy, we did not leave Anchorage until 14:00. I got really hungry while shopping and ate half a sandwich in the car on the way out of Anchorage. The delay (for which I place blame squarely on the airline) forced us to skip our first planned stop, the Rodak Nature Trail in Chugach State Park. We did get to see some of the park, though, because we hiked a 1.6 km (1 mi) trail to Thunderbird Falls on the Elkutna River.
It was at this point when Eric made the unfortunate discovery that the half sandwich I had eaten in the car had been his. He did not like my sandwich as much as the one he had ordered, because it had artichokes on it. My sandwich was also smaller. It was a mistake, but he was not happy with me.
The plan had been to arrive in Chitina by 21:30, have dinner and go to bed by 23:00. It eventually became apparent that we were enjoying the scenery too much to make it to Chitina by 21:30, and that we needed to stop somewhere sooner. Shortly after 21:00, we stopped at the Sheep Mountain Lodge, where the kitchen was closed but where we could still get soup and salad. We looked at our maps and discovered that we were only about halfway to Chitina. Uh-oh. Good thing we didn't have to wait for our dinner to be cooked.
The host had left notes up to direct us, and we were greeted by another guest, who was very friendly and helpful in getting us quickly settled in.
The return trip along the Glenn Highway was nowhere near as exciting as the trip out. Not only had we seen it all before, but the weather was cold and cloudy. We belatedly found the Visitor Center for the park.
I had hoped to have time for a tour of the Musk Ox Farm, but we had a lot of road to cover and so had to skip it. At Palmer, we headed up the Parks Highway toward Denali. The weather had now decayed to the point where it was raining, so there was no chance of glimpsing the mountain today. Desiring a more authentic experience than another Subway, we had dinner at a place called the H&H Lakeview Restaurant. A smell of cigarettes lingered in the air, the pool table had a classy sign saying, "No asses, glasses or butts on the table," and the food choices were very, well, American. Mostly burgers and fries. But they did have a garden burger, the lake view was beautiful, and the waitress was very nice. We had a great conversation with some Japanese tourists who were visiting the woman (from Portland, OR) who hosted one of them as an exchange student 35 years ago. But Subway definitely would have been faster. We needed to meet our Denali tour at 6:10 the next day, so we needed to get to bed very early.
Our amazing visit to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.