Alaska Part 2: The road to Valdez

It was up and out, go go go, when we awoke the next morning.  The sun was out and the skies were clear and the Alaska range could be seen off in the distance.  Scott shuffled us all into the van and tore off down the highway forgetting in the excitement to even let us grab a bite to eat.  But he had his reasons, if the mountains were out we needed to get to them before the clouds beat us to it.  So off we went barreling down the highway with spectacular views all around and Scott continually telling us, "we gotta keep going it keeps getting better..."  And he was right, It did...

Early in the ride we caught our first glimpse of the mountains with plumes of dust rising from the braided rivers below

We stopped to look for a heard of bison but all we saw were beautiful views

Glamour shot for Ford

Just some more mountains rolling along down the highway

The pipeline winding it's way through the tundra

Rainbow Ridge which get's it's name from the many colors of rock streaming down the sides of the mountain.

More beautiful views with a glacier thrown in

Jess modeling with some purple flowers and mountains

The big mountains finally starting to come into view

Aren't we cute?

The Wrangells and St Elias

The crew in front of the Wrangells

Worthington Glacier

I wonder if this water is cold....

Or tasty...

Not a bad view if you turn around either

Everyone looks so small bellow all that ice

Jess was very adament about getting purple flower and mountain pictures, here's one for your enjoyment

And an artsy-fartsy one too

Then through Thompson Pass and down to Valdez.  If you look close you can see the road disappearing through the mountains way down there

Valdez has purple flowers too

We made it

We lucked out with such perfect weather on this drive.  Not a single cloud got in our way nor did the fog roll in when we made our way into Valdez.  The views we saw on this day alone were more than many get to see in a whole trip and the trip was just beginning. There was so much more beauty and excitement yet to come.