On to Anchorage

From Chicken, we headed to Anchorage via Gakona Alaska. The mile house here was historic on its own account, but then in 1942, the US Army Corps of Engineers constructed additional buildings to serve the construction of the Alaskan Highway to help defeat the Japanese in World War II. Today these buildings serve as a restaurant and a tavern.

When we were in Alaska in 2010 we hadn’t yet learned about Pete Wolf Toth. It turns out that Toth’s gift to the state of Alaska was at the community college in Valdez, giving us a reason to make the journey to visit there once more. It was worth the long drive.

We had vague recollections of Valdez, but we didn’t really remember just how beautiful it is. You would swear you were in the Swiss Alps when you stand on the water’s edge in downtown Valdez. A well placed geocache got us out to the best view in town. We had a nice lunch at the Fat Mermaid not far from here, so took in this view while eating the locally caught halibut special.

We had been to several spots in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, but somehow missed the Visitor Center. The largest National Park in the system, it boasts some amazing stats. The Park is larger than Yellowstone NP, Yosemite NP and Switzerland combined! 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America are within the boundaries of the Park. It’s the home to the North America’s largest sub-polar ice field.

At this particular rest area with a spectacular view of the Wrangell Mountain Range we stopped to stretch our legs a bit, water the pooch, and see if there might just be a cache – often there is one hidden in a prominent rest stop. Well there was – and the Woman used her geo

sense to lift up this post cover to find it – nice job!

We will be in Anchorage for a bit visiting places we never made it to in 2010. We may be on and off on the blog front as we make our way by plane, ship and foot around western Alaska.

Talk to you soon!