Road Trip to Chitina - 6-19-2016

Fireweed, Willow Lake, and the Wrangell Mountains

After we had taken a drive to Tok just for lunch, we decided the following Saturday to drive to Chitina (pronounced Chit-na), just to say we had.  While Jeff gets out and about and seeing a lot of things in work, I don't, so on this drive Jeff kept pointing out things that I had never seen before...  It was nice.

yep, we have a selfie-stick now...

fireweed

Thunder Falls

 Thunder Falls is a very small little area, not room for a whole lot of vehicles, and you can see the beautiful falls from the road.  If the mosquitos hadn't been so bad, we might have walked up to get a different vantage point of the falls.  Maybe in August...

Finally we got to Chitina, no pics of the town though, and we got to the point where Jeff had never gone past before!  Finally, a place we could go together where neither of us had been!

The road past Chitina, where you would drive to get to McCarthy, is just one lane.  There's a place to pull off and wait for vehicles from the other side (like the viaduct in Mendota...).

On the other side of that cut in the rock is the Copper River.  There are very few places where you can cross the Copper River, and this is one of them.

Fish-wheels in the Copper River, harvesting the world-famous Copper River Salmon, with Mt. Drum in the background.

panoramic of the river, south of the bridge
Do you see the dip-netters?

This guy is out in the Copper River with his dip-net, looking for some salmon...

The water level was low when we were down there, so these guys were able to use this gravel bar as a rest stop.

I watched this bald eagle after I was done photographing the river.

5-3-2015: A nice day for a Sunday Drive (Copper River, Willow Lake, & Kenny Lake)

After church while Jeff was chatting with the man who made the Ulus we purchased, I walked over to the banks of the Copper River.

Copper River, facing North

There is still a decent amount of snow & ice along the banks, and I saw some ice floating in the river.

Copper River, facing South

And man, does this river run fast!  It's not even to full speed yet (which it will be once the glaciers all really start melting for the year).  You can even see in the picture above how that rock in the river affects the current.

Since it was such a nice day out, we decided to go for a drive and see if the mountains are out.  you see, from our spot down by the river, the bluffs on the other side of the river block our view of Mt. Drum.  So we went up to the Richardson, saw the mountain, and headed south.

Willow Lake

 Willow Lake has a large pull off area with a couple of monoculars (um, is that a thing? like a telescope but for scenery) so we were able to get a good view of the mountains.

And, do you see?  Willow Lake is still frozen over in May...

the road to Kenny Lake - The Edgerton Highway

Kenny Lake a small community, smaller than Glennallen.  They have a school, a general store, and during the tourist season, a cafe.  I have been told that Kenny Lake is the best kept secret around here.  The best school, better water, and a much clearer view of the mountains more frequently.

from the road to Kenny Lake

It definitely is pretty, but I will take our spot closer to the grocery store and work.  It sure makes for a nice drive, though.  Maybe next time we will drive further on the Edgerton Highway towards the mountains.  Jeff said that at some point you end up in the Park/Preserve...