McCarthy- Valdez- Glenallen

Today we drove back to Glenallen and the gravel road leading through Wrangell-St Elias National Park that we took two days ago was even more pictoresque with the sun shining. The swans were majestatically traversing dark blue lakes and the squirrels (red ones!) jumping in front of the car seemed to be amazed by the fact that the snow that fell two days ago in the mountains managed to cover some of the peaks. We also passed ghost town Chitina, which did look as if the world has forgotten about its existance (although it definitely has not, considering the fact that those tourists that do not want to take the risk and brave the gravel road on their own, take shuttle buses to McCarthy from there. The Israeli couple told us that the cost of such a shuttle bus is almost 500 dollars for two people! (in comparison, our petrol costed only 35 dollars).

Having arrived in Glenallen, we decided that it was too early to go to our bed and breakfast and drove to Valdez (another 115 miles). Valdez turned out to be a beautiful port town, entirely surrounded by mountains. We also saw another glacier on our way there.
The diversity of landscapes in Alaska does not cease to amaze us. We thought that after McCarthy and the glaciers, Anchorage with its Chuchag mountains(where we went for a hike) and quite flat Fairbanks with military bases, nothing could surprise us but the road to Valdez and Valdez itself proved us wrong. The mountains surrounding Valdez are different to the ones in Wrangell- St Elias Park (which, notabene, is definitely wilder and even more beautiful and diverse than Denali). They are covered by green bushes and seem to be less 'severe', even though there are some glaciers there as well.

Dzisiaj wrocilismy z McCarthy ta sama zwirowana droga, ktora jechalismy dwa dni temu (innej drogi nie ma). Droga okazala sie jeszcze piekniejsza, skapana w sloncu. Po drodze widzielismy labedzie majestatycznie przemierzajace granatowe jeziora ukryte w lasach i wiewiorki (rude! rzadkosc w Polnocnej Ameryce) wesolo skaczace przed samochodem. Minelismy takze wymarle miasto Chitina, ktore okreslane jest jako 'ghost town' (czyli miasto duchow). Jednakze nie jest to do konca prawda, ze swiat o Chitinie zapomnial, bo z tego miasteczka wlasnie wyruszaja shuttle busy, ktore zabieraja tych turystow, ktorzy boja sie zmierzyc ze zwirkowa droga. Co ciekawe, para z Izraelu powiedziala nam, ze taka przejazdzka w dwie strony dla dwoch osob kosztuje 500(!) dolarow. My za benzyne zaplacilismy okolo 35.(a jakie widoki!!).

Po dotraciu do Glenallen, stwierdzilismy ze jest za wczesnie, zeby udac sie do naszej lodzy i wyruszylismy do oddalonego o 115 mil miasteczka Valdez. Valdez okazalo sie urokliwa portowa miescinka, otoczona z kazdej strony przez gory. Po drodze widzielismy kolejny lodowiec.
Alaska nie przestaje nas zaskakiwac roznorodnoscia krajobrazow. Po McCarthy z przepieknymi gorami i lodowcami oraz dzikimi lasami, Anchorage z gorami Chuchag, w ktorych wybralismy sie na hike i dosc plaskim Fairbanks z bazami wojskowymi, myslelismy, ze widzielismy juz wiekszosc krajobrazow Alaski. Po drodze do Valdez okazalo sie jednak, ze gory, ktore sie znajduja tam sa zupelnie inne. Bardziej zielone, sprawiaja wrazenie 'lagodniejszych', mimo, iz tez skrywaja lodowce.