Leaving Anchorage (again and for the last time) and the road to Valdez

August 4-6   Days 57-59

Another rainy day in Anchorage so we did laundry, got groceries, got a haircut, and now for the highlight of the day, went to Cabela's that just opened a couple of months ago.  And, to make it even better, they have overnight parking spaces marked off for rvs as well as a dump station to empty the holding tanks.  With the sun shining brightly early in the morning, we leave Anchorage for the last time and work our way toward Valdez on the Richardson Highway.  The scenery along the Richardson Highway was phenomenal with lakes, streams, mountains and glaciers.  A camera simply cannot capture what the eye sees, but have a look anyway.

Matanuska Glacier

Worthington Glacier

In the next picture, the bent metal poles you see on both sides of the road are not street lights.  They are guides for the snow plows because they get a serious amount of snow in this area.  The record in one day was 62", for one month was 298", and for the season was 974.5".  The poles are ~20 feet tall.

Now that the spawning season for salmon is here, there are lots of opportunities to see thousands of salmon trying to swim back upstream to spawn.

It is not easy for the salmon for a myriad of reasons; commercial fishermen are trying to net them, they are swimming upstream, fishermen/women/children are trying to catch them, other fish are trying to eat them, bears are trying to eat them, then it really gets violent with sea gulls.
WARNING - GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION FOLLOWS - WARNING
Now keep in mind when the salmon return to spawn, they are swimming upstream and burning a lot of energy in the process.  They do not eat while migrating.  Therefore, they are in a very weakened state.  When the salmon are in very shallow water trying to spawn, the sea gulls will wade into the shallow water, grab the salmon, pull it to the bank and peck its eyes out.  Then the sea gull punctures the salmon's underbelly right at the egg sack to eat the fresh salmon eggs.  While it is part of the natural life cycle, it seems like a brutal life for the salmon.

OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data)
There are an incredible number of German tourists here.  Many fly into Canada, rent a rv, then drive to Alaska.  But, there are surprising numbers who ship their own vehicles over so they can drive their vehicles, mostly rvs, once they get here.