Our Memorable Journeys

Day 19 - 9/10/2018 - The Richardson Highway

Today's Weather: High 65, Low 30, bright sunny skies.

We left Fairbanks early this morning after scraping frost off the windshield again. Fairbanks is one of the best places on Earth to see the Northern Lights and we were hoping to see the shimmering light of the aurora borealis since it is the beginning of the Aurora Season but we didn’t get the right atmospheric conditions necessary for excellent viewing. The hotels here will give a wake-up call when the northern lights are out in the middle of the night. We really needed our sleep anyway!

Today was all about the drive. We headed south on the Richardson Highway which rises up and over the Alaska Range on open tundra country, along the silver Alaska pipeline, and at the edge of a series of alpine lakes. The highway extends 366 miles from Valdez on Prince William Sound to Fairbanks. Today we drove the first 279 miles to Copper Center where we are staying at Willow Lake B&B for a couple nights. This was the most scenic road we have ever been on….a continuous stretch of snow-capped mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes. We were treated to brilliant fall foliage colors the entire drive. We made so many stops for photos it took us all day. We also saw a moose cross the road at a gallop. She reminded us of a large horse as she ran.

The Donnelly Dome

Gulkana Glacier

Wrangell Range

We stopped at a couple Alyeska Pipeline displays. The first was a spectacular view of a 1,200 foot long section of the pipeline suspended across Tanana River between 2 towers, 2nd longest of the 13 major bridges along pipeline’s 800 mile length.

Rika’s Roadhouse at Big Delta State Historical Park was an important crossroad for prospectors, travelers, traders, and the military during the early days of the 20th century. We browsed the inside of the buildings along the park’s walking paths. They were filled with many interesting relics from the first half of the 20th century.

At another viewpont we learned more about the pipeline which snakes along the ground and over the horizon. Because of varying soil conditions along its route, the pipeline is both above and below the ground. Where the warm oil would cause icy soil to thaw and erode, the pipeline goes above ground. Where the frozen ground is mostly well-drained gravel or solid rock, and thawing is not a problem, the line is underground.

Pipeline transitions from above to below ground

Pipeline below ground

Pipeline turns provide more flexibility to help make it more resistant to earthquakes

Rainbow Ridge and Rainbow mountain were named for their varicolored talus slopes. The reds and greens are volcanic rock; the yellows and pastels are siltstone and sandstone.

We visited Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Visitor Center and watched a movie about the Park. Wrangell-St. Elias is America’s largest national Park that rises from the ocean all the way up to 18,008 ft. Mount St. Elias at 13.2 million acres is the same size as Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Switzerland combined! It has nine of the 16 tallest peaks in the US

Athabascan fish wheel

View of Willow Lake from B & B

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