Alaska- McCarthy Road

August 17 – Detouring

We made it through the night – With Jenny and I snuggled tightly together in a twin bed, window open all night and brave Billy taking the room the mouse ran out of!

Morning weather report- Windy, very cold, clouds blocking everything but not raining (there is the plus side). Coming in last night, we had the faintest, faintest outline of the mountains with their snow-covered caps and oh how marvelous they looked. This morning- nothing!

We made a few pit stops as we headed south – gas, grocery store, coffee, etc. We had no plans but to make our way across the Edgarton Highway (aka the MCarthy Road) to stay for the next three nights to spend time in Wrangell- St Elias National Park, the largest of the parks in our NPS at 12,000,000 plus acres (twice the size of Denali).

We had talked to one of the owners at the lodge we stayed at last night about maybe driving to Valdez before heading to McCarthy. She emphatically said, “Go to Valdez.” I told her that I had read it is the most beautiful drive in all of Alaska, and that I had read that it in multiple places. She told me that that is so and again said, we should go to Valdez, even if the clouds are low.

Continuing south, we pulled into the park headquarters and saw something we have never seen at one before- a totally empty parking lot save for one car. We got out to at least take a look at some displays as we assumed the visitor center was closed but there behind a window was a park ranger. How crazy is that? One of our national parks at 11:00 AM and the parking lot was empty. All three times we had to park at Denali, there were only a handful of spots available. We chatted with the ranger a bit and then asked him about Valdez. He also said we should go to Valdez, so what did we do? we decided to drive to Valdez – a mere 90 mile detour (each way as it was a turnaround detour).

Again, this is the way we roll, changing plans on a whim, driving where our interests take us and never hesitating to take a detour if there is something we enjoy on the other side (In January we made a last-minute 500 mile detour to Houston to see some friend). So in the grand scheme of things, a 90 mile detour to see Alaska’s most beautiful drive was a no brainer.

The low lying clouds held on for about half the way, to the point we did quickly discuss just turning around – not much sense detouring to see the most beautiful drive if we couldn’t see much but we held our course. There were intermittent breaks in visibility and the rain which had also started, at one point we were in some pretty thick fog but as we descended from Thomson Pass, the rain stopped, clouds were breaking and the sun was trying its hardest but visibility above 1,000 feet or so was almost nonexistent.

Ok, so the drive. I am sure you are curious as to whether or not it was worth it. The answer, a resounding definitely! It was spectacular! Prior to the Thompson Pass we were getting scenes of Ireland and Iceland, after the pass it was like Hawaii with hundreds of waterfalls pouring down out of the soaring cliffs. Truly breathtaking scenery!

We headed for lunch, since we never had breakfast, after which we made a run to the brewpub (something we have done in almost every town to get some local beers to go). Jenny then suggested we go check out the salmon hatchery to see if we could spot seal lions or otters.

We drove around the head of Port Valdez to the east side where Solomon Gulch Hatchery is located. Holy Cow, we were blown away by the scene we watched unfolding in front of our eyes – thousands upon thousands upon thousands of salmon were either struggling to make their way upstream, stuck in side inlets of the river and slowly dying or were already lying dead being feasted on by thousands upon thousands of seagulls. Honestly, probably the wildest natural phenomena I have ever witnessed – totally surreal!

We couldn’t help but sit and watch and listen (the shrieking of the gulls was insane), for quite some time. The chaos and madness of it all was somehow, a bit addicting.

Once we were finally able to pull ourselves away from the macabre scene, we began our return trip north. The weather had lifted in some parts and even the tops of the mountains were clear- a sight we haven’t seen in more than a week. But, that was not to last long.

While we were in Valdez, I had called our hosts for the upcoming three nights, and they said it had been raining since last night and was forecasted to continue for the next week… great. With that news, we were all even happier we had gone to Valdez because at least it wasn’t raining and we had some views, if not limited.

Scenes from around Valdez:

Our drive along the Edgarton from the Richardson was pretty uneventful but interesting in the fact that it was the first time in all the miles we have been that we saw any farming- in this case cows.

The end of the Edgarton brought us to the beginning of the 60 mile McCarthy Road, the only road into Wrangell-St Elias. Again, most rental car companies do not allow travel on this road, keeping most tourists out. Actually the sign at the beginning of the road is an additional deterrent to a lot of tourists I imagine; we cracked up and kept on driving.

The drive in was not a particularly stunning one. Now maybe if it wasn’t pouring, and we could see something above the tree tops it would be but again, we saw nothing. It took us two hours to travel the 60 mile, pothole rutted, washboard of a road, arriving at our cabin at 8:00.

Scenes from our drive:

The cabin was very nice with a great big wrap around deck overlooking what we assume is a beautiful vista in the distance. Jenny whipped up some scrumptious tacos for dinner and we all hit the hay hard!