Sunday July 18

Today was pretty much a travel day. We drove from outside Palmer to Valdez a total of 257 miles. It was raining to some degree all day. As we neared Valdez in the mountains it was foggy, raining, and cool. We can only hope tomorrow clears and warms up a little. I wore fleece all day if that tells you anything. I saw a lot today of 43 in the mountains and a high of 60. Currently it is 10:30 PM and the temperature is 59. It appears that Valdez is crowded but looks like it is a pretty place. Right now we plan to stay two days here and head toward Tok and back into Canada.
Today we did stop at the Headquarters for Wrangell-St.Elias National Park. That is the largest National Park, 6 times the size of Yellowstone. It is all wilderness area with the activities wilderness-oriented. You are pretty much on your own. You can hike, raft, canoe, fish, climb mountains, or ski. It contains 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the US. It contains the St. Elias Mountains, the Wrangells, parts of the Chugach and the eastern end of the Alaskan Range. Many of the mountains are volcanic. Mount Wrangell remains active. It is home to a multitude of glaciers including The Malaspina Glacier. We watched a nice movie and took some pictures.
We stopped at a pull off for lunch and to walk O. A guy from North Dakota stopped with a flat tire. He had trouble getting the spare down so I helped him finish.
Today we passed several glaciers along the way. The largest was just above Valdez. You come through mountains getting here and drop down for over 7 miles coming into town. If it had not been for the rain and fog coming into Valdez could have had as high a wow factor at the drive out of Anchorage. I'll get back to you on that. Tonight we are camper outside of town but have a reservation in town at a nice campground with wifi.
Gas prices in Valdez are $3.76. That seemed high since the Alaskan Pipe line ends here.