Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

Dianne took this photograph on our way to the Arctic Circle. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (referred to as “the Pipeline” in Alaska) conveys crude oil in a 48” pipeline over a distance of 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska to Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska. We learned from museum exhibits and in conversation with Alaskans that the amount of crude oil flowing through the Pipeline today is about one-third of its high of 2,000,000 barrels a day in 1988. If we had traveled another 275 miles north of the Arctic Circle on this road we would have reached Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay on the Beaufort Sea.

Museum of the North, Fairbanks

The Anchorage Museum of History and Art and the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks are both outstanding facilities with many wonderful and informative exhibits. The Alaska Museum of the North is one of the most beautiful and original buildings we have ever seen. Dianne contacted Joan Soranno of HGA Architects and Engineers in Minneapolis, the architect of the building, to tell her how much we enjoyed seeing the building and to ask her if she would like a print of this photograph. Joan told Dianne that she was thrilled to have a copy of her photograph for her portfolio.

Arctic Circle

Dianne flew into Anchorage to join me for a while on the road and together we drove as far north as the Arctic Circle above Fairbanks. While in Fairbanks, we asked a local what we would find at the Arctic Circle. She told us we would find a sign there. Seeking additional information, we told her we were from California and were thinking about driving there so as to have bragging rights. She then replied, “Well, it’s a really nice sign.”

Tok, Alaska

You pretty much have to go through the town of Tok (rhymes with poke; population 1,500) if you’re driving to Alaska. As you can see in this photograph of the 4th of July parade, Tok is 93 miles northwest of the U.S./Canadian border on the Alaska Highway. You can also get to Tok by driving northwest on the Klondike Highway from Whitehorse to Dawson City (both in the Yukon), take the ferry over the Yukon River, drive over the Top of the World Highway to the northern most U.S. Border crossing, and then south to Tok. Both entering and leaving Alaska I stayed at the Sourdough Campground and Café, home of the Sourdough Pancake Toss. I didn’t win a free breakfast, but I’ll try again the next time I travel to Alaska.

Chilkott Lake

Chilkott Lake is about 10 miles northeast of Haines, Alaska along the coast of the Alaskan Panhandle. I got to Haines by taking the ferry from Skagway, Alaska. The photograph was taken near the outlet to the Chilkoot River, said to be some of the best salmon fishing in southeast Alaska, which, as several warning signs along the way made clear, brings bears to the area. I didn’t see any bears while I was there, but did encounter quite a few mosquitoes.

Sign Post Forest

Until I got to the town of Watson Lake (population 1,500) in the Yukon Territory, just over the border with British Columbia, I was unaware of its "Sign Post Forest" with over 65,000 (!) signs. It was begun in 1942 by an Army soldier working on the construction of the Alaska Highway. Visitors are encouraged to add a sign -- most of them appeared to have been liberated from their original location -- to the Sign Post Forest.

Salmon Glacier

Now that I’m back from my travels to and from Alaska this summer, I’ll begin to post a few of the photographs I took along the way. I’ll add a few more as time permits. Salmon Glacier is in British Columbia, just to the east of the southern end of the Alaskan panhandle. It’s a good illustration of the pleasure I get from the I-wonder-what’s-up-that-road kind of traveling I like to do. Returning to Berkeley from Alaska along Highway 37 in British Columbia, I noticed on the AAA map Highway 37A headed west to the town on Stewart in British Columbia (not Steward on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska) and nearby the town of Hyder, just across the border in Alaska. On the map, the town of Hyder looked like the southern most town in Alaska you could drive to from the continent. (There are several other towns, e.g., Ketchikan, further south in Alaska, but you need a ferry, other boat or airplane to get to them.) A conversation with the owner of the campground where I stayed in Stewart revealed the presence of the Salmon Glacier Road, a narrow, gravel road that would take me to the overlook from which I took this photograph (actually several photographs stitched together in Photoshop). Salmon Glacier Road doesn’t appear on the AAA map, which makes it even more fun to “discover.” (I would have known about the Road if I had been reading more closely the indispensable MILEPOST guidebook.) About 13 miles north of Hyder, the road crosses back into British Columbia without Canadian customs. Another visitor at the summit viewpoint informed me she and her husband were there the day before and that they could barely see the rocks immediately in front of them. Salmon Glacier is reported to be the largest glacier in the world accessible by road. It was spectacular.