Walking on Ice

 

Today we went south on the Richardson Highway, skirting the edge of Wrangell St. Elias National Park. These folks were walking on the Worthington Glacier, the most visited spot on the highway. This glacier is not fenced off. You are free to hike to its toe and jump on, with warnings that no one but you is responsible if you fall in a crevasse. Maybe on the way back we will just do that.

This part of the Richardson Highway is like Switzerland. The mountains, the snow, the glaciers. Just breathtaking. Wrangell St Elias is the largest US Wilderness and the least visited. 50,000 people a year visit its 13 million acres. Why? Only 100 miles of gravel roads into the park. Its icefields are so huge that flying in is the most practical way to see the park. 25% is covered by glacial ice. It has six peaks over 15,000 feet and the highest active volcano in Alaska, Mt. Wrangell, 14,163 feet.

We have two days to decide if we are going to trek into the park to McCarthy, or save the RV for another dirt road trip. Meanwhile, here in Valdez, we are ringed full circle by mountains. I could sing The Hills are Alive if I could forget that I am in a typical North American RV park. Tomorrow they are having a fish fry in the RV park, which I will miss because of our boat trip. They said they will save me a piece of fish.

The Valdez officials relocated a young blond grizzly last week. It was homesteading its territory on a frequently walked/driven trail, and they were afraid someone would shoot it. It was also causing rubber necking traffic jams. They trapped it without sedating it, using volunteers and a boat to transport it. They don't know if it was male or female...No one was bold enough to take a look. It's off in the wild somewhere now, hopefully very happy in a bear friendly environment.