Driving from Anchorage to Seward, and home to Whitehorse
This is a recap of the past 3 days – a tour of Anchorage, the drive to Seward where the group boarded the Celebrity Millennium, and my drive home to Whitehorse.
This was the view up 4th Avenue from my room at the Historic Anchorage Hotel on Thursday morning (July 19th) at 05:50 – the sun had been up for almost an hour by then.
With the weather forecast calling for temps in the low 70s, I opted to go to the Alaska Native Heritage Center first. We arrived as a Native games demonstration was going on – this is the One Foot High Kick.
A Tlingit dance group was next on the stage.
This is the Tlingit salmon dance, performed by the Lepquinm Gumilgit Gogoadim Ts’msyen dancers from Metlakatla. Based in Anchorage, they perform Ts’msyen songs.
Tlingit artist James Williams is carving a potlatch bowl, but was having a tough time with rocks and dirt embedded in the beach-tossed log chosen for the project. His carving tools needed frequent sharpening. I wish I had the opportunity to go back and watch the frog bowl emerge from the log.
The upper part of the totem pole beside the Tlingit longhouse.
The Tlingit longhouse and the carving shed where James Williams is working on the potlatch bowl.
The Native center has a high berm separating the public area of the property from the service area, and it’s covered with this carpet of flowers – very nice!
This photo of gardeners working outside my hotel was shot a few minutes before 11:00 pm.
We began the drive to Seward on Friday morning at 9:00, and an hour later stopped along Turnagain Arm for some photos. The “mist” at the far end of the arm is dust being blown off the sand flats. Because of its scenic, natural, historical and recreational values, the 127-mile Seward Highway between Anchorage and Seward holds 3 significant designations: USDA Forest Service Scenic Byway, Alaska Scenic Byway, and All-American Road.
The group’s first glacier, the Explorer Glacier beside the Portage Road.
The Byron Glacier is at the furthest end of the road to Portage Lake.
We reached Seward just before 1:00, made a quick stop so the folks could get their allotment of wine to take aboard, then went down to the dock. Seeing the Celebrity Millennium made me want to head up the gangplank again too – our cruise on her last month was superb!
Heading north by myself, I stopped a few miles up the highway to clean the bugs off the windshield and stock up on bottled water for the long drive ahead.
One of the porters at the Seward dock had mentioned that the highway was closed at Mile 78. I figured it was another traffic accident, and that it would be cleared by the time I got there. I was shocked to find this situation at Mile 62!!
We were out of range of any radio or cell phone signals, but the guy in the car behind me heard somewhere that there was a sniper taking shots at people on the road! As I write this, the story still isn’t clear, but a red-and-black lowrider pickup truck that we saw at the side of the highway with a State Trooper with all his emergency lights on was the key to the drama, so whatever the story turns out to be, it started within a few minutes of us passing that pickup. Wild stuff!
By the time the traffic cleared about 3 hours later, my plan to make it to Glenallen for the night was gone. I checked with the Historic Anchorage Hotel – they had no rooms, so I decided to drive another hour to Palmer where I could get a motel for 1/3 the price. The Alaska Choice Inn is very basic but the room I got was clean and good value at under $80 including taxes. I had a good night’s sleep and took this photo at 04:30 Saturday morning as I was about to hit the road again.
I can never pass by the viewpoint over the massive glacier-fed Matanuska River without a photo – or 2 or 3 🙂
The Glenn Highway threads its way through the mountains ahead at 05:20.
The view of the Matanuska River from Mile 95 at 05:35.
The dramatic colours of Sheep Mountain.
Into a broad glacial valley.
The Glenn Highway is the most under-appreciated highway by visitors to Alaska. From spectacular peaks to a large roadside glacier and permafrost lakes, the scenery is wonderful.
There’s a lot of highway re-re-rebuilding going on along the Alaska Highway, which slowed the trip down, but to cut the rest of the story short, I’m home – back with Cathy and all the fur-kids.
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