Valdez

So this morning we went for a run. There was a perfectly straight walking path besides the highway. For over 6km, it veered neither left nor right from its intended course. One the one had it was quite boring, but on the other, I realized I never ran a perfectly straight trail, it was interesting to watch the distant mountains grow closer as you ran; running in a loop or circuit you seldom get a sense of the distance you cover.

We then had the campground breakfast - a buffet of pancakes, sausage and fruit; we loaded up on the latter. We were then heading down the highway. It's becoming tiring to try and find superlatives for the views as you drive; today's road was another highlight. After the gently winding road south of Tok, we came upon the Wrangell range. The first glipses were disappointing, you could see the massifs rising from the plains, but the bulk of the mountain was enshrouded in clouds. Eventually, the clouds dissipated a bit, and you could see the peaks towering above the clouds - Mount Sanford at 4949m and Mt. Drum at 3861m. The mind failed to comprehend how massive these peaks are, and the broad sweeping plains before them only seemed to exacerbate their imposing presence.

We continued on, stopping occasionally to take in the views. The final stretch of road into Valdez was another highlight, and we stopped at the Worthington Glacier and hiked to the toe to get close and take a look at it. Continuing on, we came around the corner, and had to pull over again for another spectacular panorama of the valley below, before continuing on.

We finally arrived at Valdez around 6PM - it took us almost 8 hours to cover 400 km due to viewpoints, not road conditions. It is unfortunate that when the average person (who is not an extreme skier) hears of Valdez; the first think that comes to mind is the 1989 oil spill. This place is idyllic, it's like a miniature version of Vancouver: tucked in between mountians and ocean,
but much much smaller. The mountains burst up from the ocean and are carpeted with a lush velvety verdant vegetation, which contrasted with the cloudless blue sky (though were were told this was abnormal - normally, its cloudy and/or foggy). We found a place to stay, had dinner, then went for a walk around this small town before retiring for the night.