Today was a driving day but the surroundings were amazing for all but the last 30 miles and the great weather of the past few days continued. Since you will probably need a map to follow the route I’ll put the link to the map and road video here.
Starting from Anchorage I headed south along the Seward Highway towards the Kenai Peninsula. To get to the peninsula the highway runs along the northern shore of Turnagain Arm which offers spectacular views. Even though I was heading into the sun the video captured the overall drive well but here are a couple of photos to give you a flavor.To see the full resolution 180o panorama click the image.
On the way to Kenai I made a couple of detours. The first was to Alyeska where I was hoping to ride a cable car tram to a height of 2,500 feet for an even better view. This was a spur of the moment thing and, when I got there, no one was around and the tram did not seem to be operating even though their web site claimed it should be open.
The second detour was to Whittier which requires driving through the 2nd longest road tunnel in North America, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. The interesting thing about the tunnel is that it is also a rail tunnel (tracks and road are the same, single lane) and the direction of traffic is alternated and stopped for Alaska Railroad trains. It was built by the US Army between 1941 and 1943.
Whittier has a pleasant harbor with Prince William Sound beyond but the town itself is very industrial and ugly (as seen on the video)
There are thousands of fresh water creeks that flow into the ocean in Alaska and all of them seem have huge numbers of salmon returning to spawn at the moment. This creek in Whittier is typical
On the way back from Whittier a train pulled up alongside as I was waiting for the tunnel. The train got priority and went ahead of me.
Also in this area is Portage Lake
My final detour was towards Hope, AK on the southern shore of Turnagain Arm. I “hoped” that photos taken looking north might be clearer but, when I got there, found no difference so I turned back and headed to Soldotna which was my destination for the day.
I finally got caught up watching all the videos up to this point. Even on the days you don’t think much of the scenery it all looks pretty spectacular!
I’ve been pretty impressed with Alaska so far. Thanks for joining me on the ride.
Spectacular!