Dunfey Alaska Journey

On July 8th, we travelled up the first 12 miles of McCarthy Road to hike into 3 lakes looking for somewhere to paddle. We couldn’t find a location close enough to road to get kayaks to lake.  This section of the road was probably the roughest part of the whole road. We had decided not to take our camper on this road. We planned to stay at a lodge in McCarthy and enjoy restaurant meals for 2 days while we visited  the Kennicott Copper Mine and took a guided tour on the Root Glacier.

McCarthy is a town about 5 miles before you reach the mine town of Kennicott. Miners used to visit McCarthy to let off steam after they were paid. The National Park Service and others are retoring the Kennicott area to preserve this historic cooper mining town. Very few people inhabit this area full time. Those that do are interesting characters.

The towns are only accessible to tourists by town/lodge shuttle services that pick you up at a footbridge at the end of the McCarthy road. The whole trip there is a return to another era as well as a visit to two glaciers – Kennicott and Root Glaciers that are located right there.

McCarthy Road has been improved substantially in the last few years. Its ruggedness now consists in the length of the washboard gravel road – 60 miles of this road certainly leaves you with a disdain for gravel, dust and ruts. It is worth the trip but I wouldn’t bring any RV other than a pickup camper. Staying overnight at the Backpacker Hotel ($28 per person dormitory style)  is a cheaper alternative to the 2 lodging options in McCarthy/Kennicott. The trip in took us about 4 hours one way but could be done in 2-3 hours.

The National Park Service talks and tour of Kennicott Cooper Mine were a very interesting. The mine processing buildings were in good enough shape to give you a complete picture of what went on there and how the people lived there. 

This posting has picture of the towns, views along McCarthy Road and the hikes we took.

The next posting will have pictures of our Root Glacier Adventure and the kayak paddle we took on Long Lake at the McCarthy 30 mile mark (Approx.).

One of the highlights of our trip was planned to be our guided tour of the Root Glacier in Wrangell-St Elias National Park. It exceeded our expectations on July 10th. Our guide, Kate, spent 5 hours with 4 of us. We spent about an hour hiking from Kennicott up to the foot of Root Glacier. We added a layer of clothing and put ice crampons on our feet. Kate instructed us on what to look out for and how to climb and walk on the glacier.

Then, Kate led us up the foot of the glacier and onto the base glacier. We viewed blue ice and blue water pools. We hiked up to the edge of a large moulin and looked down into the depths of the ice cliff. We saw beginner ice climbers going though their paces.

The scenery was outstanding. The experience of walking up and down various formations was exhilerating.

Kate gave us a lot of information about what we were looking at whether it was wild flowers or moraines.
One outstanding experience!!

 

On our way back on July 11th to our campsite on McCarthy Road, we found a spot on Long Lake for our kayak put in.

We had a beautiful paddle. The hills didn’t seem as blocked by the smoke as in the prior days.

We saw remote homes accessible from the lake only and how self sufficient they seemed. They pumped water from the lake, had solar panels, had hydroponic gardens on their docks and seemed prepared for winter.

A dog came along the shore to guide us down the lake. We even saw a plane land on the main camp grass as we were taking out our kayaks.

We left Chitina on the morning of July 12th. At Glennallen, we headed on the Glenn highway towards Anchorage. We decided to stop overnight at the Grand View RV Park near the Matanuska Glacier.

We enjoyed this campground. We liked the peacefulness and the views. The staff were  very friendly and helpful. Their Cafe was excellent. We stayed an extra night before visiting the Matanuska Glacier.

At the Matanuska State Park, there was a nature trail overlooking the “Mat” Glacier but the only access to the Glacier itself was by paying a visitor’s fee at Glacier View Campground. We took the trail to the Glacier and walked up on the Glacier for a hour.

On July 14th, we drove down the Glenn highway past Palmer and camped at Eklutna Lake Campground in Chugach State Park about 30 miles from Anchorage.  We saw kayakers on Matanuska River.

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Eklutna Lake is 7 miles long and a mile wide. It is very silty from the glaciers that feed it. It provides drinking water for the Anchorage area.

We paddled the Lake and loaded our kayaks with driftwood for our camp fire.

We  stayed 3 nights at Eagle River Campground in Chugach State Park about 12 miles from Anchorage. 

We attended a guided nature trail hike at the Eagle River Nature Center, The naturalist viewed with us many of the flowers, bushes and trees  that inhabit the area. She also mentioned that the Crows Pass Marathon was tomorrow. Participants run from Girkwood to Eagle River. It is a tricky and often torturous 24-mile journey over a mountain pass, through a river and across rocks, roots, snow glacier and scree. The next day we found out that the winners broke the record with 1st sub 3 hour time.

One day, we went  to Anchorage visit their Zoo, see the city and its parks.

We left Eagle River Campground on morning of July 19th heading for Seward. In Anchorage, we picked up the very scenic Steward Highway. Our first stop on the way was Potter Marsh, a state maintained wild life viewing area. Further on, we stopped near Beluga Point on Turnagain Arm where we saw slews of white beluga whales frolicking in the bay. We skipped going to Girdwood and a visit to their Ski Resort due to the rainy weather. We amy get there on our way back through the area.

We went to Portage Glacier to kayak on the lake and take of boat tour of the Glacier. The weather was raining and misty. We went to the visitor center. We were told that kayaking was restricted to bottom of the lake where there may or may not be any icebergs. The weather was so bad we decided to visit again on our way back from Kenai Peninsula to Denali area. We skipped the paddling and the glacier tour.

When we got to Seward, we checked into the Sterling Creek RV Park with full service accomodations. We did laundry and took showers. Fred shaved the beard that had formed while in state campgrounds.  We brought our Alaska trip blog up to date.  On our last full day in Seward, we visited Exit Glacier. Due to rain, we did not hike the trail to the Glacier but viewed it from Park Viewing Station (No pictures – left camera behind!). We also splurged on a sea food dinner on their best waterfront restaurant – Ray’s.

We took a 6 hour Kenai Fjords Wildlife and Glacier Tour. We went to Aialik Glacier. We did see a variety of sea creatures including stellar sea lions, otters, dolphins and humpback whales. We passed a number of glaciers on way to Aialik Glacier. Aialik Glacier did release several small slides of ice while we were watching. The area did not have many large icebergs. It was a disappointment after what we saw at Tracey’s Arm trip out of Juneau.

Kenai Kjords Wildlife and Glacier Tour

 

Today, July 22nd, we leave for Homer. We may stop overnight somewhere on the way tonight. We expect to be in Homer over the weekend.  We are attending the Annual Birthday Bash of Sally Dodd Butters who has lived in Homer for the last 40 years. Sally and Milly grew up together in western New Jersey. Sally was a very good friend of Milly’s sister Judy Higby. Fred will be meeting Sally for first time after “interneting” with her for the last 4 months.

We have also contacted Edna Peters who lives in Ruby, a remote villiage on the Yukon River. Ruby has a population of about 200 people! The only way for us to get there is by plane from Fairbanks. Edna was married to her husband Emmitt by Fr. Ron Dunfey in Ruby many years ago. She has offered to have us stay at her place with her Family. We hope to visit Ruby in mid to late August if the plans work out.

Visiting an isolated villiage is recommended to see the real Alaska firsthand!!