ALCAN 2012

Last you heard, I was stuck in Valdez due to flooding. After a 5 day wait (due to bad weather) to get out of Cordova I finally got out only to be now stuck in Valdez.  I couldn't help but begin to notice my bad luck.

A series of storms kept hammering the coast of Alaska causing flooding all over that part of the state and washed out some roads.  Like the one and only road out of Valdez.

I arrived via ferry from Cordova into Valdez at 10 in the morning the road was due to be closed until 3 in the afternoon.  I hung out at the Valdez Public Library for 5 hours then headed north out the road.   Only to find out that is was still closed.  Standby to standby until the next announcement at 6 PM.  It started to feel like waiting for a herring opening.  6 PM came and went with no word.  Finally about 7:30 PM, after waiting patiently all day, I heard on the radio that the road was now, finally open.

There wasn't much daylight left then, but given that the road was open despite the fact that it never stopped raining and wasn't forecasted to stop raining, the writing was on the wall.  I took off out of Valdez.  I didn't get far that night, but I was out.  And heard that that next morning, the road had closed again. 

The view from the ferry, though not much of one

Flooding along the road out of Valdez

Waterfalls along the road that are usually a trickle

Once out of Valdez and over Thompson pass, it was clear skies, amazing fall colors of gold, orange, and reds.  Heck, there were even stars, something I hadn't seen in weeks!  I could go on and on trying to describe Alaska's fall time beauty and the beauty of the ALCAN, the Alaska Canadian Highway,  but instead, I'll let my pictures speak for themselves.

Moose in the morning

Fall colors

Alaska morning

Fall colors in the morning

Early morning

Colors in the morning

Caribou in  the Yukon

British Columbia, Canada

Black bear in the Yukon

Bison in the Yukon