Deadman Lake to Valdez
Again we are headed further west to Tok (rhymes with joke), then south to Valdez - pronounced Val-Deez. We had spent som
e time in Tok a couple of days ago to check out the Visitors Center - which was jam packed full of brochures and pamphlets on Alaska - and to do our wash and get some groceries. Tok isn't very big, population 1,435 and only about 3 miles long but it sure is busy. This is the first town you come to after traveling some distance where you can actually buy groceries, do your laundry, get mechanical repairs to your vehicles and camp in fairly nice campgrounds - if you want to pay the price - dump your tanks and take on water. We had done all of that so this day we were just passing through.
e time in Tok a couple of days ago to check out the Visitors Center - which was jam packed full of brochures and pamphlets on Alaska - and to do our wash and get some groceries. Tok isn't very big, population 1,435 and only about 3 miles long but it sure is busy. This is the first town you come to after traveling some distance where you can actually buy groceries, do your laundry, get mechanical repairs to your vehicles and camp in fairly nice campgrounds - if you want to pay the price - dump your tanks and take on water. We had done all of that so this day we were just passing through.We got a l
ate start and then stopped at one of the campgrounds to visit with a young family we had met at Deadman Lake and drop their food we bought for them off. They had blown their transmission and had no way to get food, so when we went in we took care of that and when we got back to the campground, they had left. As we found out later, his father in Montana made arrangements to have their VW van towed back to Tok and then to Delta Junction where the young man would put a new transmission in and then continue on their way to Montana. They had lived in the "bush" in the town of Galena - only way in was by plane - and with a 10 week old daughter, Mom didn't want any further adventures, so they were moving back "home". Anyway, we spotted them in the campground and got their food to them and then continued on our way down the Tok Cutoff.
ate start and then stopped at one of the campgrounds to visit with a young family we had met at Deadman Lake and drop their food we bought for them off. They had blown their transmission and had no way to get food, so when we went in we took care of that and when we got back to the campground, they had left. As we found out later, his father in Montana made arrangements to have their VW van towed back to Tok and then to Delta Junction where the young man would put a new transmission in and then continue on their way to Montana. They had lived in the "bush" in the town of Galena - only way in was by plane - and with a 10 week old daughter, Mom didn't want any further adventures, so they were moving back "home". Anyway, we spotted them in the campground and got their food to them and then continued on our way down the Tok Cutoff.We didn't get very far due to the delays and there weren't any good stops that we saw so we pulled over into a rest stop and spent a miserable night. This stop was in a higher elevation and it was windy and rained all night. One time when I got up I checked the thermometer and it read 36 degrees. I was expecting snow in the morning. The following morning we decided we needed to find another place that was a little more sheltered and at a lower elevation.
We stopped at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Preserve. This is the largest unit in the national park system, encompassing 13.2 million acres of wild lands and 9.7 million acres of designated wilderness. Formed by the Wrangell, St. Elias and Chugach mountain ranges, the park contains the greatest collection of peaks over 16,000 feet on the continent, including Mount St. Eliza - 18,029 feet - the second tallest peak in the United States. The park also contains the largest concentration of glaciers on the continent. One of these is the Malaspina Glacier which is North America's largest piedmont glacier - a type formed when 2 or more glaciers flow from confined valleys to form a broad fan. This glacier covers an area of ab out 1,500 square miles, larger than the state of Rhode Island. The most active glacier in North America is the Hubbard Glacier which flows out of the St. Elias Mountains into Disenchantment Bay. It is presently advancing in spite of global climate change. Most of the travel into the park is by plane or on foot. If hiking, most of the trails into the park are unimproved trails that were once mining routes. The rangers stress wilderness and survival skills are essential.
The Alaska Oil Pipe Line - this is really impressive!!
The pipeline is 48" in diameter and is 800 miles in length - from Prudhoe Bay on the Artic Ocean to Valdez. Quite an undertaking. Some of it is above ground - where the hot oil traveling through the pipeline would melt the Permafrost - and a lot of it is buried below ground. We could see it quite frequently as we traveled on the Richardson Highway.
After our visit to the park, we proceeded to find a place to stay for 
the night. We found an ex
cellent one with a view of Billy Mitchell mountain and glacier.He was a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps which in 1903 was completing the trans-Alaska telegraph line to connect all the military posts in Alaska.
the night. We found an ex
cellent one with a view of Billy Mitchell mountain and glacier.He was a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps which in 1903 was completing the trans-Alaska telegraph line to connect all the military posts in Alaska. 
Billy Mitchell Mountain at sunset
The Billy Mitchell rest stop not only has a beautiful view, there are several wildflowers there. This is one of my favorites and they are everywhere - in fields, along the streams and alongside the road beds. The Artic Lupine.
Another abundant wildflower is the Horned Dandelion. This looks similar to the ones in the lower 48 states but it has a blunt end on the petals and underneath the bloom are green leaves that look like horns on the stems.
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