The Glenn Highway

Another day of rain greeted us this morning. In fact, it is raining as we write this.

Nevertheless, Alaska is a beautiful place, whether it is sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy. No, cancel the snow part. It’s way too early for that, although believe it or not, the leaves are beginning to change color here.

We left Wasilla this morning, with intentions of visiting the Dorothy Page Museum. If you recall, Dorothy Page is the “Mother” of the Iditarod. Wasilla has a restored townsite with a school, church, meeting hall, railroad depot and museum. Slight problem for picture taking however, if you visit Wasilla on a Wednesday in the summer. Wednesdays are devoted to a Farmer’s Market. With the short growing season in Alaska, there can’t be too many of these, but there was one today. Okay, guess where the Farmer’s Market is held? Right, in front of the Dorothy Page Museum. Somehow it just didn’t fit with the picture taking we had planned.

So, we moved on the to the Iditarod Headquarters. This location is devoted to Joe Redington, co-founder of the event. He and Dorothy Page were instrumental in making the Alaskan Iditarod the famous event that it is today. Imagine traveling 1,150 miles from Anchorage to Nome, led by sled dogs! In case it is your fantasy, it is exactly 198 days until the next race. Better get started if you plan to participate.

Located at the headquarters is a replica of the eighth rest station on the actual Iditarod trail.

After leaving Wasilla, we headed down the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, eventually meeting the Glenn Highway. The Glenn Highway connects Anchorage to the town of Glennallen. Named after Alaskan explorer Edwin Glenn who led an expedition in 1898, the highway is designated as a National Scenic Byway. It is also known as Alaska Highway #1. It winds and turns through the Chugach Mountains, over and back the Matanuska River. The road changes elevation time and time again. At some points you are at the riverbed. At other points, you are looking down into a canyon at the mighty Matanuska. The biggest treat is to see Matanuska Glacier. The glacier runs 27 miles and at times is up to four miles wide! With the trails of rock running through the glacier, it has the appearance of a superhighway. It is a superhighway, of ice! It is imposing.

Another viewpoint along the Glenn Highway gives a glimpse of the pyramid shaped King Mountain next to the Matanuska. At 5,809 feet tall, King Mountain is majestic. Another view added Alaska’s state flower, the fireweed. It truly did look like the cover of a 1,000-piece puzzle. The varied shades of green, the purple-pink fireweed and the glacial mountains painted a glorious picture. Turn another 90 degrees and you capture Sheep Mountain. This is a picture of Alaska.

Before we ended our trip on the Glenn Highway, we also noticed some metal poles, lining the higher elevations of the roadway (3,000 feet and above). If you can picture a series of upside down “L’s” lining the highway, you can imagine what we saw. We couldn’t figure out their purpose. Finally it “clicked” and we confirmed that they are markers for the winter road crews. The 20-foot high bent poles with their horizontal extensions aid the snowplow drivers in knowing where the road surface ends and how far they can push the snow off to the side. We can only imagine that the extreme height is to accommodate enormous piles of snow at the roadside. Yikes.

While we had hoped to make it to Valdez today, our final stop was Glennallen. Called the Hub of Alaska, it is built at the intersection of the Richardson Highway and the Glenn Highway. Head north and you travel to Fairbanks. Head south and you travel to Valdez. Some highways have railroad tracks along their sides. The Richardson Highway has the Trans-Alaska Pipeline hugging its side. We will follow that pipeline to Valdez tomorrow.