Richardson and Glenn Highway

August 22: Richardson and Glenn Highways. We planned an early start as this was to be a travel day. The weather did not cooperate. It was very cloudy and we could not see across the lake. Set we sat drinking our coffee and discussing plan B. Glancing back at the lake, it was clear! In a matter of seconds the clouds had lifted completely. It was truly amazing! We drove towards Valdez to Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls. They are spectacular and the names aptly describe them.

Horsetail Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Headed back up the Richardson Highway to Wrangell-St Elias National Park. We wanted to walk the loop trail. It is called the Boreal Forest Trail. Edna called it the mushroom trail. Everywhere you looked were mushrooms. We ran into our first caravan. The parking lot was full of big rigs, but no one was on the trail except us.

On the Glen Highway at Sheep Mountain we saw Dall Sheep. Too far away for a picture. Stopped at Matanuska Glacier. From the highway the photo,ops are everwhere. This section of the road is new and there are pleanty of pull offs. Today is August 22 and the fall colors are coming. We even saw a new dusting of snow on the high peaks.

Stopped at Homestead RV Park in Palmer for the night. Very helpful and nice owners. What a great view from the campground of the evening sun on the mountains.

Blueberry Lake

August 21: Blueberry Lake. I did a little fishing and my lure got hung up on a summered twig. I did not want to lose a lure, so I took my shoes off and rolled my pants up and went into the lake to get it. Edna was watching and was so shocked, she did not get a picture. Good! We talked to a range. He believes the ducks we saw were common golden-eyes. The family has been here all summer.

Did some walking up the trail to the tundra. Walked on the ridge line and then dropped down to see if we could reach a stream that feed into the lake. The ground was very spongy and pockmarked by holes filled with water. They call this muskeg. Hikers used piles of rocks to mark the trail for return. We followed the previous made piles.

As we returned, we found chairs set up on the tundra, overlooking the deep canyon with mountains in the distance. We realized it was being set up for a wedding. Many of the guests were Native Americans but not all. Later in the day, we explored a new path and found old moose nuggets. It became freezing cold, and misting so we returned to Escape To. High today was 57 degrees.