Top of the World to Anchorage

As the border guards let us in, they told us that the first 9 miles of road was sealed and very good,

then it changed to a goat track with soft shoulders and a 3,000 foot drop – how right they were!

By the time we got to Chicken (named after the creek where gold was found, not the giant chicken sculpture)

both Badger and Max were caked in mud

We carried on down the mountain road to Tok and Glenallen where the scenery was spectacular

We parked up Badger and drove down to Valdez in the car (only a 3 hour drive each way!) – again the views were amazing

  

We went down again the next day and joined a cruise of Prince William Sound to the Columbia Glacier. WOW! Photos don’t do it justice but it was a day we will always remember J

We saw sea otters, sea lions, puffins, a breaching humpback whale and waterfalls:

More spectacularly, we saw the Columbia Glacier. The face is 300ft above the waterline and at least 600ft below (the captains sounding equipment only went to 600ft) and this face was 5 miles wide – it was massive!

To give some perspective, the black speck in the following photo is another boat with a 30ft mast!

We heard the glacier creak and groan and were lucky enough to see it calving – where bits fall off. It has retreated 10 miles since the late 1980’s.

The trip there and back was just as amazing as the boat slowly made its way through the ice

From Glenallen to Anchorage, the views were great again:

(we think the poles are to give the snow-ploughs some perspective of how deep the snow is)

We’re now in Anchorage for a few days for a look around and will probably do a day trip down to the Kenai Peninsula – only a 5 hour drive each way!