McCarthy/Kennicott

This blog actually begins as we were leaving Valdez. We were driving along and realized how really close we still are to Oregon. We felt right at home! Almost....


A funny thing happened on the way to Dayville, we ran into a dog team pulling a 4-wheeler....

Just before we got to the Pipeline Terminal, we came across something I have never seen before in 30 years living in Alaska.....a flashing sign....

The pipeline terminal in Valdez. Unfortunately there were no tankers in port at the time....

After Valdez, we camped at Tonsina River Campground - owned and operated by a Russian family that just moved here 2 months ago from Florida! There were only 2 of us parked in their campground. They said they had "fabulous" Russian food for dinner, so we thought we'd try some. Tom had some Borscht soup - that was great. Then he had a stuffed pepper and I had some kind of crepe thing, and I have to say, neither of us finished our meals. Not because it was too much food, either. Very plain, bland food with no flavor at all. While sitting in the camper that evening, we heard a different noise, and low and behold....an airplane was landing there to refuel! Here he is taking off...

On the way to McCarthy/Kennicott area, we came upon the mighty Copper River, where much of our grocery store fresh salmon comes from...

We kept driving, and it began to appear we were heading into the great unknown...

We cross the Copper River once again and these are campers with fish baskets out catching salmon....the baskets go around and catch the salmon - they slide into a bucket and wait to be

taken out. sorry I can't zoom in on the picture better!

The view from a bridge....

Another bridge that got our attention. Not a great view of it, but fortunately it is not in use any longer - an old railroad bridge!

Once in the town of McCarthy, you have to park and take a footbridge across a river, to be met by a shuttle driver that takes you to Kennicott and the old mine. There is a glacier there, Root Glacier. In front of the town is an enormous amount of Moraine. I believe this is Moraine Mertz. ;-)

Here is Root Glacier, as close as we could get to it.

The new Lodge ...very smokey unfortunately.

This is a picture of the old copper mill and mine. The first ore came out by train in 1911, filled with $250,000 worth of copper. It was shut down in 1938. During it's lifetime, it produced more than $200 million worth of ore.

another shot

As we were driving out of the area, I got another shot of the fish wheels....