Today we are leaving McCarthy again and take a plane to Chitina. After the flight we take the car to Valdez. In the morning we still have a lot of time in McCarthy and we take a walk through the village and have a look at the museum. During the days of the copper rush the village was many times bigger and there we’re about 300 residents. Unfortunately not much remains of the historic buildings.
We travel by plane to Chitina airport. Well, airport, it’s more of a cleared field meant to look like a runway. The view from the plane is very cool. We try to take pictures but the trip really is too short. We would have liked to experience the flight a lot longer. We land and get in our car, onwards to Valdez. During the trip we stop several times to enjoy the view. By now we have learned to avoid the scenic views and stop at the regular parking areas. The scenic views are all behind trees, which makes the view worthless, or it’s not there at all.
Just before the Thompson Pass on the way to Valdez we pass the Worthington Glacier. Despite the less than perfect weather, we decide to stop and have a look.
Wow, what a glacier! But it wouldn’t be crazy tourists if there weren’t a couple of them standing right below the big chunks of ice… Some people really don’t see any danger. We’ll just stay behind the fence and take a picture from a distance.
After a short drive we arrive at the Thompson Pass, but it’s completely fogged in. 20 miles per hour even seems fast, so we can’t stop to have look. With a bit of luck we have better weather when come through here again on the way back.
We descend towards Valdez. At the end of the road we arrive in the village where the pipeline stops. We quickly find our B&B and start looking for a restaurant.
Photo gallery McCarthy - Worthington Glacier - Valdez - Alaska - USA
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