Day 43 Palmer to Valdez, AK – 266 Miles

August 11^th

Another cloudy and rainy day.

Today's drive was along the Richardson Highway, Alaska’s First Road. It existed as a trail in the late 1800’s, upgraded to a wagon road in 1910 under the direction of General Wilds P. Richardson, updated to auto standards in 1920 and hard-surfaced in 1957.

Our home and wheels are still hanging together!

We viewed numerous glaciers at a distance along the way.

All together there are an estimated 100,000 glaciers in Alaska!

Worthington Glacier

Horse Tail Falls

Lots of Snow equals Lots of Waterfalls!

Valdez is the south-terminus of the Alaska pipeline.

In 1973, Alyeska Pipeline received permission to begin construction of the 800-mile pipeline.

It was completed in 1977.

420 miles are above ground and the pipes can move sideways on the cross-beams up to 12 feet in case of thermal expansion or earthquake activity.

Since 911 the company has stopped giving public tours of their facility.

We were told "Security there is very tight!" Even employees' cars are searched as when they come to work.

Butter-and-Eggs

This is in the snapdragon family – beautiful - but is an “introduced weed”, disliked by agricultural folks.

It grows all around MN too.