2005/07 Alaska and Back Again - Road to Glenallen |
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Friday July 29th
Friday began dull and dry, good for a driving day. We were going to be leaving the Kenai and heading across Alaska from Anchorage to Glenallen, back towards Tok where we’d started our drive around Alaska. This time we could actually see Turnagain Arm and the mountains around it. We stopped at Walmart in Anchorage for some shopping and, as it was a Friday, I called ahead to book the campsite in Glenallen. The owner said that he didn’t take credit cards, and he’d only hold the campsite for four hours.
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Glenn Highway (Glennallen) |
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This didn’t seem to be a problem as we left Anchorage on the Glenn, a four-lane highway, but then it turned to a 
narrow, bumpy, rippled road through the mountains. The scenery was magnificent but I was too busy arm-twirling and correcting slides to take much notice. The road followed the Matanuska, another of Alaska’s “braided” rivers, where the water is continually cutting new channels, and then climbed steeply into red and gold mountains with a view of the enormous Matanuska 
Glacier. There are no towns on this stretch and we were burning fuel at a furious rate with all the climbing, so we were very relieved to find gas at the Eureka Lodge, perched on the edge of the mountain.
We arrived on schedule at the Wilderness Campground just outside Glenallen. It turned out to be perfect for us, plenty of room and alongside a bubbling creek. John and I cooked steaks outside in steadily heavier rain.