Anchorage to Delta on the Richardson Highway

The drive was to be a 7 hour chill drive up through one pountain pass, along a long snowy plateau, down another mountain valley, take a left after GlenAllen, across a wide flat plateau, up a mountain pass, down the other side and home. Not too much in 350 miles. I was never out of sight of mountains. There are three pretty sections that stick out in my mind. The first was at the top of the Matanusk Susitna (MatSu) valley past Palmer, Alaska. It was the MatSu Glacier. I could only see it from a distance, so the photos aren't very impressive but I could make out the front of the glacier and the giant crevasses along its face hundreds of feet tall.

MatSu glacier face in the distance.

Looking back down the valley.



The second spot that was amazing was at the top of the plateau. The entire area was covered in 3 feet of snow, I mean everything. the Ground, trees, houses, cabins, poles, even the signs were covered. This area is on the south side of the Alaska range so the snow is much wetter and makes good snowballs. It also seems to stick to everything. I smiled a big smile and hummed white Christmas as I drove along. This part of the road had a lot of snowmachiners (snowmobilers) and even some guys playing on ice on ATVs. Lots of cabins and houses, but still a remote feeling. Then I hit the third type of terrain on the drive. From GlenAllen to Delta over the Alaska Range is very remote, the spruce and pine grow right up to the road and the shoulders are 4 foot thick with snow the entire way, the mountains sit off in the distant background.

I passed maybe 5 cars in over 100 miles. Luckily too, as I forgot a valuable icy road tip. I had been cruising along at 60 without a care in the world in cruise control. I went down this dip and over a small bridge and started uphill, when the cruise kicked in at full throttle, I was in 2 wheel drive so in an instant I was sliding sideways up the highway. I steered into the skid and gently pressed the brakes but was vectoring across the oncoming lane, straight into one of those 4 foot thick shoulders. I decided to try to spin it at the last second and just clipped the nose before being spun 270 and ending up 5 feet off the road backwards up to my windows in a snowbank of powdery fluff.  I checked my drawers to see if they needed a change. fortune smiled, no traffic coming the other direction. I threw Taco in 4high and gunned out of the snowbank back up into my lane. Before I could get out and look the truck over and Ford came from the oncoming direction. A few seconds from total disaster. Whatever angel in heaven is assigned to my safe keeping, I say 'thank you' once again and I hope you get your wings. Rign a bell. I did a walk around and other than snow stuffed in every crook and cranny, no dents, no harm, no foul. 4high and 45mph for the last 50 miles, no reason to hurry.