From Tetlin to Chitina
July 11-12, 2008

After staying a night in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, we drove through 47 miles of road construction/repair to Tok. It seems that in Alaska, as in Wisconsin, there are two seasons; they are called "winter" and "road construction".

mountains along Tok Cutoff






The next day we headed southwest on the Tok Cutoff highway towards Anchorage. The weather was clearing after a night of rain. The views of the mountains were wonderful, especially since the last time we came through here in 2004 we couldn't see anything because of forest fire smoke.

bull moose





A bull moose in a pond along the highway having lunch.


99999100000





Our Roadtrek odometer rolled over 100,000 miles today! We have had great times in this van. Wonder how many more miles we will get before trading it in for a new one.
Wrangell-St. Elias mountains





The Wrangell-St. Elias mountains. The tops are obscured by clouds. The mountains go up to over 16,000 feet.  They are mostly dormant volcanoes, although Mt. Wrangell still emits steam. The mountains are in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which the rangers claim is the largest national park in the U.S.; it spans an area of 13million acres. The park is mostly wilderness; there are only a couple of roads that go a partway into the park. We are heading for one of them - the road to McCarthy.


Chugach mountains







Further south on the Richardson Highway we can see the Chugach mountains, which is the range just to the north of Valdez.

fish wheels





Fish wheels along the Copper River near Chitina. Fish wheels and dip nets are used by Alaskans with subsistence hunting and fishing permits to catch salmon. We spent the night here in a free campground with a bunch of fishermen.