Valdez to Wasilla ~ Are Sara Palin (VP?) and Lisa Kelly (IRT) In?

 

Up early this morning, getting ready to leave for a sunny day of travel up Richardson Hwy to Glennallen junction and onto Glennallen Hwy down to Chickaloon ending up in Wasilla.

Manatuska Glacier

Back to Valdez for a second. I was outside walking around the camper in the campground and I spotted two Bald Eagles perched in a tree just 50 feet away. I got my Nikon and long 300mm lens and started to watch these two guys in the tree. I took several shots. I can’t wait to see a large print, framed in my sunroom of these two majestic birds.

I unhooked all the utilities (including cable TV) and we were off. Just on the outskirt of town, I spotted two Trumpeter Swans, very white in a dark pool of pond water. A few hundred feet walking down the side of the road a fox, not the red fox type but a variety that looks dark and grey. I had seen this species in the museum yesterday, but the name escapes me. The ride for most of the way to Wasilla was pretty normal. Your majestic mountain after majestic mountain ... a picture around every corner.

Colors in the rock are from volcanic actions

As we approached  the Matanuska Glacier, it brought back memories of my visit here 28 years ago. I had stopped here with a National Guard buddy, Paul Gagne of Errol. We had spotted a plane crash on the Glacier and had driven down a dirt road to check it out the wreckage. Today, I turned down this same road and was describing the road to Helen before we drove down to the valley floor. The interesting thing about the road was that it was carved into a sheer gravel cliff over a hundred feet high, with no clearance for anything coming off the cliff. I mean the wall was dried clay. I don’t know what kept it from washing down during a rain storm. Anyway, back to see if the plane was still there and how far the glacier had receded in 28 years. The answer is I don’t know. You see, before you get to the public land there now is a $15 toll for each to access the public land. Boo! I’ll wait another 28 years and that guy will have moved on.

Wasilla, the home of Sara Palin and Lisa Kelly a professional truck driver featured in the Discovery Channel “Ice Road Truckers” I met Parker Schnabel of the TV series “Gold Rush”. Maybe our luck will continue & we will meet either one of these two celebrities.

That is what we did and saw