Palmer to Valdez Day 2 - Worthington Glacier

It was a super lucrative day for photos. Check out the Picasa albums for today's photos.

The Copper Center Lodge beds were very soft and springy which usually is negative for me, but I woke up very rested. While the girls got ready for the day, I repacked the car and snapped my shots around the Copper Center Lodge. My favorite subject was the garage and defunct gas station across the street. We had breakfast at the lodge. K had their signature sourdough pancakes. We all tried a bite. The taste was unusual, be in conjunction with their homemade syrup, one is left craving more.

We walked a trail behind the lodge along the bank of the Klutina river down to where it dumps into the Copper river. Several old cars were dumped into the woods decades ago and the river has since shifted and encroached on the auto graveyard. One of the cars half in the river made for an interesting photo subject.

We made our way to Worthington Glacier and met Günter Limbach at a scenic pull out. He and a group of friends are caravanning across the Americas. They started in July 2006 shipping their RVs from Hamburg to Buenos Aires. From there they've been making their way up South, Central, and North America crossing paths with us in Alaska. The back of his RV is badged with a promotion advert for Günter's hometown of Hannover which is partially funding his trip. You can check out his website (in German) at www.panamericana06.de.

It was great fun climbing around the moraines at the base of Worthington Glacier. There was a dude holding an ice climbing class with a bunch of outdoorsy chicks. Looks like a nice gig for him. We discovered the fireweed is indeed the first vegetation to grow at the site of a receding glacier.

Just south of Worthington glacier is Thompson pass which accumulates massive snow each winter season. The record fall there was 900 inches in one season and 65 inches in 24 hours. Despite the heavy snowfall, they're typically able to keep the pass open with a massive snowplow army. There are large poles with reflectors through the pass to direct the plows.

Further towards Valdez, we spotted some nice waterfalls. We rolled into Valdez at around 6:00 P.M. Valdez is most well known for being the terminus of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. There used to be tours of the oil transfer station, but no longer after 9-11. The name Valdez was made infamous after the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez upon running aground on Bligh Reef. None of the spill reached Valdez as it blew south into Prince William Sound.

We gave the Chinese restaurant in Valdez a try as the Chinese restaurants in our own hometown sucks. We were pleasantly surprised. We took a post prandial stroll through a nature trail funded by Exxon as part of the spill restitution. I'm not one to defend big business, but municipalities and environmental organizations have been milking that cow to death. It's an industry in and unto itself.

We settled into our hotel, watched an episode of "Dirty Jobs" on Discovery Channel and called it a night.