Alaska Trip: day 5

I got up early this morning to meet Meta and James and their family for breakfast at The Fat Mermaid - great food by the way!  Since I had a change of plans in Delta for the next few days and no washer and dryer, I had to quickly do all my laundry too; and after breakfast, I quickly dried all the clothes.  It was really nice to catch up with everyone and meet James for the first time.

Horsetail Falls (above) and Bridal Veil Falls (below) in the Lowe River Canyon

After laundry and breakfast, I took off, heading north!  I actually only made it a short way out of town before stopping at Horsetail and Bridal Veil Falls which were beautiful.  Then I proceeded up Lowe River to Thompson Pass.  Even though it wasn't on my list of places to stop, it was so beautiful, I just had to!  I actually found a place with a pipeline access road which took me up on an overlook of Thompson Pass, Twentyseven Mile Glacier, and the Lowe River which was a perfect, little hike.

Twentyseven Mile Glacier from Thompson Pass

Thompson Pass (above and below)

Lowe River (above) and Heiden Canyon (below)

Lowe River (above) and a tributary to Heiden Canyon (below)

After the Thompson Pass hike, I drove a bit farther north to Worthington Glacier which was on my list of places to visit.  I hiked up to the glacier here which was fantastic!  I could tell the glacier was in active retreat because it was dropping so much sediment and leaving behind moraines and even ice bridges were collapsing.  I hiked up far enough to touch ice, but no farther since the crevasses were deep!

After hiking back to the car, I drove north to Pippen Lake and then to Gulkana River.  Unfortunately, I struck out on fishing at both locations.  I thought for sure I'd catch something at Pippen Lake, but I think maybe it was just over-fished.  And Gulkana River, despite being the first river that I came across that wasn't silted-out, was a combination of just not being a good spot and probably being over-fished.  Regardless, it was nice to have a break at both spots.

Gulkana River (above) and Paxson Lake (below) with the Clearwater Mountains and Maclaren Glacier

The further I got away from Glenallen, the more remote it got, but also the more familiar it got as I got closer and closer to Delta Junction.  I drove down to Paxson Lake, but didn't catch anything there - probably since I was literally just fishing from the boat launch at a campground.  But the view was beutiful.  Not wasting any time, I drove farther north to Summit Lake and tried fishing at the southern outlet; I saw fish jumping, but nothing was biting.

Fish Creek where it flows into Summit Lake (above) and the Gulkana Glacier (below)

Gulkana Glacier (above) from Isabel Pass (below)

Driving farther north, I had to stop at the viewpoint for the Gulkana Glacier and again at the pipeline crossing at Phelan Creek.  These weren't planned stops, but the views were just so beautiful.  My planned stops was at the base of Rainbow Ridge where I've wanted to go looking for fossils since high school.  I ended up hiking up a tributary toward Rainbow Ridge, but wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be looking for and seeing and got a bit nervous about bears so I ultimately turned around and headed back down to the car.

Milepost 599 of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (above) where it crosses Phelan Creek (below)

Phelan Creek where it flows past Rainbow Ridge (above and below)

The last hour or so, driving north to Delta was without interruption and I ended up driving right to Uncle Fronty and aunt Barbara's home to say to folks (outside and from a distance).  Everyone turned out and I was able to pass out gifts to all the kiddos.  And after a bit, I drove over to my air BnB and checked in for the evening.