Valdez and Thompson Pass

I'm packing for "points north". Next Sunday evening, I'll fly via Alaska Airlines jet to Fairbanks. I'll overnight at Sophie Station, a decent suite style motel. On Monday morning I'll board a much smaller single engine utility aircraft, a Cessna Caravan. That aircraft will take mail, cargo, me, and probably one or two other passengers, to Anaktuvuk Pass, a small village above the Arctic Circle.

Until Sunday, I'll post a few photos of various places Angel, our friend Ruth, and I visited on the Alaska "road system" last June. If you look at a map of Alaska, you'll understand what I mean by "road system". Alaskans either live in communities that are connected by roads and the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, or they live in areas that are only accessible by air. Those areas only accessible by air are known to Alaskans as the "Bush".

The pictures posted today were taken in Valdez, and at Mendenhall Glacier, which is near the top of Thompson Pass. Valdez is on Prince William Sound, and is the terminus of the Alaska Oil Pipeline. I thought the 29 mph speed limit sign at the oil terminal entrance was "somewhat unusual". Why the odd number? The "Pipeline" photo was taken a few hundred miles north of Valdez, between Paxon and Delta Junction.