MONDAY |
ALASKAN STOP #31WILLIWAW CAMPGROUNDCHUGACH NATIONAL FOREST outside of Whittier, AK |
Today we put the Kenai Peninsula in our rear view mirror, which effectively means we are heading for the exit from Alaska.
Our final morning look at Tern Lake on the Kenai Peninsula.
But yeah, our time in Alaska is coming to an end.
I looked at the weather forecast for the general area we'll be in for the rest of August. What it predicts is it will start raining on August 4th and isn't supposed to stop until sometime next month. As I write this on August 15th, so far it has been correct. It has rained most of the day, every day, for two weeks now. I guess it will stop raining when it starts snowing next month!
Williwaw Campground is our 5th and final visit to the Chugach National Forest campgrounds.
The cruise leaves from the docks in the small town of Whittier. If you want to drive into the small town of Whittier you have to pass through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It is a one-lane tunnel that not only services the highway traffic arriving and departing from Whittier, it also accommodates the Alaskan Railraod trains.
Waiting our turn to enter the tunnel heading to Whittier
Most of the interior walls were left natural jagged rock when the tunnel ws constructed.
Two and a half miles later we exit the tunnel in the town of Whittier.
We arrived early for our 12:45PM cruise so we had time to grab a quick late breakfast before boarding the boat. We weren't the only ones willing to spend the lousy weather day out on a cruise as the boat was nearly full. The tour would have been great if the weather was clear, our tour today, not so much.
There was one bright thing to say about our cruise and that was the people we were paired up with at our table were delightful, a father and daughter duo from Arizona, Mike and Amy. The daughter moved to Alaska last November for work and now lives here fulltime. Dad will be returning to Arizona but will surely visit again!
One of the few times we left the comfort of the ship's interior to grab a quick photo.
They informed me the entrance road to the campground was flooded over and they just saw a salmon cross the road in the streaming water. That set off alarm bells in my head because I figured somewhere upstream the water had crested the banks of the river running behind our campsite and soon we made not have a way to leave.
I got into ROVER and went to check out the entrance road, then drove back to the campsite and told Tricia we were leaving, NOW! Just to play it safe. - T
Thirty minutes later we were exiting the campground and found the water streaming over the exit roadway.
It doesn't look like much now,
but that water is 6-8 inches deep and swiftly moving over the roadway, right to left.
See the wake created when the water hits the left hand brush?
This could get very bad, very quick, we're out of here!
OUR ALASKAN CHALLENGE: |
| COMPLETED | PROGRESS BAR |
STILL TO GO |
| 80 | 20 |
|---|
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Until next time
