Day 23 - FINALLY Sunny Alaska

----------------Clouds are everywhere even on sunny days



------------------Chicaloon General Store--YUCK!---------------

The mountain stream on road to Hatcher Pass -----------------------------Ski Lodge and cafe on side of mountain in Hatcher Pass--

Going to Hatcher Pass

Mountains and stream on Hwy 1 to Matanuska Glacier

Glacier Pool on Matanuska Gracier

Matanuska Glacier

Tuesday July 27, 2010. We left the campground this morning around 10:00am with no particular destination in mind. Larry wanted to drive back to Matanuska Glacier on Hwy 1 also known as the Glenn Highway. We had traveled through this area on our way into Anchorage about 10 days ago. We headed out of Palmer toward the glacier area which was about 60 miles northeast. The road is a mountain road with curves and drop offs that appear to be miles down the mountain side. I mentioned this earlier in the blog about how there are no guardrails on many of these sharp high curves and coming through this area in the motor home was pretty exciting! We made our way through the mountains and the scenery is just a beautiful vista of the mountains shrouded by the clouds and the mountain stream running down the mountain side. We came into the glacier area and found a gravel road--well more like a dirt road with potholes --winding down the side of the mountain. We ended at a gift shop where they sold tickets for $15 each to allow us to continue driving about 2 more mile to the glacier area. The road ended at a parking area. The lady in the gift shop told us that the foot path going on up to the glacier was about 3 city blocks. I don't know how long the city blocks in Alaska are but it was more like a mile to get to the glacier. We carefully picked our way over the dirt path which was rocky, muddy and had many area of large pools of standing water. We made it to the glacier and walked out a short distance on the glacier and I decided to turn back and let Larry continue farther out onto the glacier. I found a seat on a picnic table and sat for what seemed hours. I began worrying about Larry as the glacier rises up to block the view of the path he left on. I imagined him falling into a crevice or knocking himself out or whatever. I started wondering just HOW I was going to find him then looked out on the glacier and he was waving his hand at me. He KNEW he had been gone much too long!!! We made the long trek back up the holey, muddy path to the car. We drove for the next hour with the windows of the car wide open trying to cool off as we had dressed much too warm for the climbing and walking.

On our way to the glacier, I had seen a general store in a little town(wide spot in the road) called Chickaloon. On the way back I wanted to stop and look around as it looked interesting. We pulled into a muddy parking lot with pot holes the size of our car and tredged to the door. There was a puddle of water right in front of the door so you had to kinda jump over it into the doorway. We opened the door and the smell about made us pass out. It was filthy and smelled like rotten meat and sweat and many other things! There was a potbellied guy with a big bushy beard behind the counter on a computer and he never looked up once and we did not stay 30 seconds as it was so grubby. We quickly hit the door and laughed like we were crazy. Larry said you could sure cut some big farts in there and they would still be lingering when we made it back to Alaska the next time. YUCK!!

We drove back to Palmer and all the while I am shooting pictures of the mountains and the mountain stream like I'm publishing a book. Mountains and water are a great passion of mine so what can I say?? We got gas and headed toward Hatcher Pass. We drove a short distance out of Palmer on Fishook Road. I had read about Hatcher Pass on the internet and it sounded beautiful. We started up the mountain road and again, the beauty was just breathtaking!! The mountain stream rushing down the mountain was crystal clear and so pristine! I can never get enough of these places! We traveled up and up and wound around the curves for several miles until we came to lodge on the mountain top. It was nestled on the side of the mountain and looked to be a ski lodge.We went in and bought a cup of coffee and a homemade cookie to share. It was very unique inside and out. There were 4 very small cabins near the lodge which I assume are used in the winter for cross country skiers. We talked to a guy about the road that went through the pass. We were wondering if we could make it through in the car. He said as long as it is not raining we should make it by driving very slow. We took the road and it was dirt with potholes and we were making it slowly up the mountain when it started raining. Looking down the side of the other mountain, the sun was shinning bright. The farther we drove the worse the road was and the rain was coming pretty steady by now so the road was getting very slick and muddy. We got to an area that had a pull off and decided to turn around and head back down to the main road. It would have been a beautiful drive but not if we slid off the side. There were very few cars we passed on the way up so we might have been up there for eternity before someone rescued us.

Anyway we had a wonderful day with such beautiful scenery! It is so amazing how big and fluffy the clouds are in Alaska. Everywhere you look is just massive white clouds. Some of them are over the mountains and others just hoover above the mountains. I have taken enough pictures to publish a book but pictures are another weakness of mine--just ask my daughters!

Tomorrow I'm not sure where we are going or if we are staying here until we move back to Anchorage on Friday. Larry called a place in Anchorage that services Mercedes Benz, which is what our engine is in our motor home. They said they would look at the exhaust break issue if we wanted to bring it in. We are talking of driving back tomorrow to have that done.