A few more from our trip to Fairbanks

[Blue_In_AK]

I got a little break from work, so here are a few from Friday. We went up to Fairbanks by way of the Glenn and Richardson Highways, which is a somewhat longer and more strenuous drive than the Parks Highway (our route home), but I personally like it much better because there are fewer people on the road -- something that makes Hullboss, the driver, somewhat nervous. We went for so long without seeing another car that he was worried the highway was closed ahead of us. It's about a 400-mile drive or maybe a little more taking that route.

Anyway, this is the frozen Matanuska River


which flows from the Matanuska Glacier here.


It seems like every time we come by here, it's either cloudy or the most glaring time of day as it was on Friday about noon. I'm planning to go up there late in the afternoon sometime this summer and get the good light. But anyway this is the best I could do given the blinding conditions.

Here we are on the road heading toward Glennallen. I believe this is Mt. Sandord in from of us, although I could be wrong. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, in any event.


Some of the mountains of the Alaska Range


This is one of Alaska's many "Summit Lakes." This is the one near Paxson (of "Trig Paxson Van Palin" fame).


We got into a little blowing snow, whiteout action, which was pretty thrilling




It made a nice sunset, though


We drove the last couple of hours in the dark, so this was my last shot of the day.

More later.

[Mira]

1. I must admit I refreshed to check on you an number of times today

and boy was it ever worth it. Beautiful - eerily beautiful - and beyond my imagination of what can be real.
Do you realize the truck appears to be levitating?
Number two looks like a snow lava flow, and the wind swept ones scare the daylights out of me.
Deep breathing going on here. That's what I do when I'm impressed and astounded.
Thanks !

[JeffR]

2. That's some kind of beautiful.

Kudos to your driver for taking that route and choosing a fine photographer to come along for the ride.

[Celebration]

3. That was a real adventure

So breathtakingly beautiful................

How far is it between gas stations?

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Gas stations are few and far between out there.

Since my husband's mom came along with us, we rented a car this time (riding in the rumble seat of our truck gets really old really fast), so we got much better mileage than usual. We left with a full tank, topped off in Glennallen, about 150 miles away, and then made it on to Fairbanks with no problem. We were able to make it back to Anchorage on the shorter route with just the fill up in Fairbanks. If we had had the truck, we probably would have filled up in Talkeetna, which is about 110 miles north of here on the Parks Highway.

Even worse is trying to find food, especially this time of year, since so many of the lodges and roadside cafes aren't open through the winter. I was famished yesterday by the time we finally found a place to eat lunch -- in Wasilla at about 4:00 p.m. By that time we almost could have driven the rest of the way home (only another 35 miles or so), but I really was starving. A hard boiled egg and a tiny apple for breakfast just didn't go very far.

You do have to plan your trips out pretty carefully here, though. If we're going out into some of the more remote areas -- and believe it or not, there are much more remote areas that this out there -- sometimes we take 10 gallons extra just to be on the safe side.


ed. And that mountain on the road to Glennallen, it's "Sanford," not "Sandord."

[tekisui]

4. Beautiful. The glacier is so impressive.

Thanks for the show!

[Richard D]

6. Beautiful!

Wow. So wondrous. hard to believe that so much beauty exists. I hope I can spend some time there someday with a few dozen empty CF cards.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. You owe it to yourself to make a visit.

[NashVegas]

8. Aw, Blue

Geez. Damn. Geez.

These are great and 1, 3, 6 are magnificent.

3 needs a publisher.

[Fumesucker]

9. Great shots..

Makes me glad I didn't post my pathetic snow picture(s)..

I'm outside Atlanta and we don't get snow every year, or even every other year really.

I'm trying to figure out a way to show 95 degrees and 99% humidity in a picture, get ready to show what summer is like here.

But then I spent several years in N'awlins, much worse than here for heat and humidity..

[Blue_In_AK]

10. We were in New Orleans in October of 2006

and even then the heat seemed oppressive to me. I can't even imagine what it's like in the summer, especially after all the years that I've lived up here where if the temperature is 68 we think it's hot.

And, please, do post your snow pictures. I don't want to discourage anyone.