Glacier Highway Ride

The Glacier Highway is a short, well-paved spur road that connects the Cassiar Highway with Stewart, British Columbia, and Hyder, Alaska. The highway crosses the Coast Mountains, and you can see more than twenty glaciers from the road. The Bear Glacier descends almost to the roadside and is considered by many to be the highlight of the trip. Stewart and Hyder are quiet villages on one of the long fjords that carry salt water from the Pacific far into the mountains. There is a weekly ferry that links Stewart with the Alaska Marine Highway system. From Hyder, an improved gravel road climbs high into the mountains, revealing magnificent glacial vistas and visiting old silver and copper mines.

The Glacier Highway (British Columbia Highway 37A) runs west from Meziadin Junction and BC 37, following the north shore of Meziadin Lake. A vigorous growth of forest hides the turquoise water, which owes its striking tint to a suspension of fine glacial silt. The silt refracts the light that enters the water, and the light that escapes is limited to the blue-green part of the spectrum. There is a picnic area near the head of the lake at Kilometer 8. The peaks of the Cambria Range crowd the head of the lake, and the road crosses Sunrise Creek and ascends gently toward Bear Pass. Several hanging glaciers in the peaks to the south are visible from this section of the road. As the highway drops into an alpine valley beyond Bear Pass, be on the lookout for mountain goats.

The Bear Glacier originates in the Cambria Ice Field and pours down toward the road between Mounts Disraeli and Strohn. Its surface is fissured with deep crevasses that glow with an ethereal blue light. The glacier has been retreating in recent years; it once crossed the valley floor to meet the far slopes. Look uphill to spot the old roadbed, built when the glacier crossed the valley. As the glacier retreated, it left a deep basin that later filled with meltwater to form Bear Lake. From time to time, great slabs of ice calve off the glacier and slide into the lake to form icebergs.

The Bear River carries the glacial meltwater toward the coast, and the road follows its westward descent. Watch for avalanche chutes dropping from the steep slopes that surround the valley. Periodic snow slides have cleared these tracks, and they are often populated by specialist shrubs, such as slide alders. Unlike stiff-trunked conifers, which snap under the force of an avalanche, these shrubs can bend without breaking.

The road drops quickly into the lowlands, and the trees return in the form of a lush coastal forest. Sitka spruce, hemlock, and cedar thrive on the abundant rainfall and frequent fog that typify the northern coastline. Numerous tributaries join the Bear River during the course of its descent, and it soon becomes a tangle of braided channels wandering across a gravelly flood plain. As the highway approaches the town of Stewart, watch for the gossamer waterfalls that grace the steep slopes high above the valley floor.

Stewart is a mining town at heart, and it has suffered the boom-and-bust fate so typical of this industry. There has been little mining activity in recent years, giving the town a quiet and restful aspect. Stewart is situated at the end of Portland Canal, a narrow, 150-kilometer (90-mile) fjord that forms the southern border between Alaska and British Columbia. The town has a small historical museum that specializes in displays of old mining equipment. Ask here about the several historic buildings in town. There are also several stonework storehouses built by the U.S. Army in 1896 at Eagle Point, on the international border. You can view spawning salmon in the clear water of Rainy Creek on the northern end of Stewart; pink salmon run in September and October, while the silvers spawn during November. Ferries run once a week from Stewart to Ketchikan, Alaska, linking the community with the Alaska Marine Highway system.

From Stewart, the road winds around the north end of the fjord, crossing an unguarded border to reach the Alaskan town of Hyder. Because Hyder is so isolated from other Alaskan communities, it has forged close ties with its Canadian neighbor. There is no customs house, and Hyder businesses accept only Canadian currency, since the only bank in the vicinity is in Stewart. The two towns hold a combined celebration of Canada Day and Independence Day that lasts from July 1st to the 4th. Hyder bills itself as "The Friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska" and offers a rollicking and popular nightlife. If you are adventurous, ask about becoming "Hyderized," a ritual of some local notoriety.

Granduc Road Sidetrip

From Hyder, you can follow the Granduc Road deep into the mountains to visit old mining sites. The road is steep and winding. It can be negotiated by most passenger cars but should not be attempted by RVs or vehicles pulling trailers.

The road begins by following the Salmon River northward through a deep valley flanked by steep mountains. After 7.6 kilometers, the road crosses Fish Creek, which is known for supporting the largest run of chum salmon in the world. Specimens weighing 35 pounds and more have been recorded, and the clear waters of the creek make for ideal viewing. The run begins in late July. The spawning salmon also attract the coastal brown bear, a larger relative of the grizzly. This magnificent animal is the lord of its domain. Do not approach, taunt, or attempt to feed it! Enjoy the bears only from the safety of your car.

The Granduc Road continues along the river, passing the Riverside Mine site just before reaching the Canadian border. This small mine was active during the early 1900s, but now only rusting equipment and scattered timbers remain. Soon after crossing into British Columbia, the road climbs into a side valley and passes beneath the enormous Westmin Premier Mine, which produced gold and silver between 1919 and 1954. It now employs only a skeleton staff. You can get the best view of the enormous tailings heaps, produced by decades of hard-rock mining, from the far side of the leaching pond.

The road soon climbs around a hillside and returns to the Salmon River drainage. It charts a precarious path across the steep slope of Big Missouri Ridge, named for another of the prominent local mines. The road winds high above the valley floor and offers views of the Munro and Texas glaciers cupped in folds on the wall of the opposite valley. You can barely see the old Westmin Tenajon Mine above the road, and the Salmon Glacier in the valley below.

The Granduc Road tops out at a lofty summit. From this point, you can view Salmon Glacier in all its glory as it descends from the heights of Mount White-Fraser to a low pass, where the flowing ice splits and pours down both sides of the Coast Mountains divide. Watch for mountain goats in the alpine meadows along the top of the ridge.

As you begin to descend, the murky waters of Summit Lake appear below, dotted with the ice floes calved from the northern lobe of the Salmon Glacier. Above the foot of the lake sits the ore mill of the old Granduc Copper Mine. The mine itself is 8 kilometers to the northwest, and ore was transported to the mill through a tunnel blasted beneath the glaciers. Mining activity is thought to have changed the hydrology of Summit Lake. It once drained northward into the interior, but it now drains coastward beneath Salmon Glacier, causing annual August flooding in the valley of the Salmon River. The road dead-ends near the Granduc mill at Kilometer 36, amid a spectacular and barren landscape.

Alaska Highway 8 Denali Ride

This rugged gravel highway connects the Richardson and Parks highways by crossing the high tundra in the heart of the Alaska Range. Before the construction of the Parks Highway in 1971, this road was the only access route to Denali National Park. The scenery along the way rivals that found in the park, without the crowds of tourists and bothersome travel restrictions.

The route follows an old dog-sled trail that once ran between Paxson and Cantwell, providing access to the gold camp at Valdez Creek. The modern highway is wide and fairly level, but it is paved only for the first 21 miles between Paxson and the Tangle Lakes. The gravel portion can be incredibly rough, with long stretches of potholes and washboards. For this reason, some rental-car companies will not permit you to drive their vehicles on the Denali Highway. Lodges on the Susitna River and at Tangle Lakes offer the only gas along the route.

The road begins by crossing the Gulkana River, which is a hotbed of red-salmon spawning activity in July and August. Fishing is not allowed here, but the clear water permits excellent viewing opportunities.

After the road climbs onto the high shoulders of Paxson Mountain, you will see the first of the glacial topography created in Pleistocene times. Summit Lake occupies the broad valley to the north, a basin scooped out by glaciers and dammed by alluvial debris deposited by Falls Creek at the basin's north end. Beyond the lake, the craggy slopes of Icefall Peak are graced by the Gulkana and Gakona glaciers, remnants of an ice field that once filled the basin below them. The summit of Paxson Mountain is littered with glacial erratics, indicating that ice once covered its summit. Much later, a small montane glacier carved a natural amphitheater into the mountain's north slope.

After crossing high, tundra-clad benches, the road swings through a gap occupied by Tenmile Lake. It continues to climb until it overlooks the vast tundra basin known as Hungry Hollow. The extinct volcanoes of the Wrangell Mountains rise in the distance. These are shield volcanoes, which build up layer by layer when lava flowed quietly from fissures in the earth's crust. Glaciers and cataclysmic eruptions have whittled away Mounts Sanford and Drum, while the younger Mount Wrangell between them has retained its original form. It has been known to emit an occasional plume of steam.

The road enters the Tangle Lakes Archaeological District at Mile 15. In this area, prehistoric hunters knapped stone implements from the local chert as they awaited the migratory herds of caribou. The area is important to archaeologists, who have located more than 400 sites. It is illegal to disturb or remove anything of archaeological interest; violators of the Antiquities Act face heavy fines, confiscation of property, and jail sentences. Bands of the Nelchina caribou herd still funnel through this area, which is hemmed in by the craggy mountains to the north and the boggy muskeg to the south.

At Mile 17, you may spot red-necked phalaropes on a lake north of the road. This small waterbird swims in tight circles, creating a vortex that sucks aquatic insects from the muck of the lakebed and brings them to the surface to be gobbled up. The pavement ends as the road passes Round Tangle Lake. This is an outstanding area for bird watchers. Wigeons, goldeneyes, pintails, and trumpeter swans are commonly spotted on the lakes. Harlequin ducks nest along the free-flowing stretches of the Tangle River. The tundra uplands are home to all three species of ptarmigan, as well as the gyrfalcon, which hunts them. The Tangle Lakes are popular with canoeists and are the put-in spot for a three-day float of the Delta River. The float features predominantly Class II water, with a few Class III riffles and a portage around Black Rapids.

The pavement gives way to gravel as the highway leaves the lakes, and soon the rugged volcanic summits of the Amphitheater Mountains rise to the north. Landmark Gap breaches this range and you can see the snowy peaks of the Alaska Range through this U-shaped passage. The road climbs gently through High Valley, which is dotted with kettle lakes formed when buried chunks of glacial ice melted. MacLaren Summit lies at the west end of the basin and is the highest point in the journey. Trails run in both directions along the summit, heading for the high country where pikas and marmots are often seen. Summit Lake is the large mere to the north, dammed by the terminal moraine of a glacier that once filled the High Valley. Below is the valley of the MacLaren River, and at its head the MacLaren Glacier slides down Mount Hayes, the dominant peak in this part of the Alaska Range. Lesser peaks that are visible from MacLaren Summit include Aurora Peak, Mount Shand, and Mount Geist.

A long grade leads into the MacLaren River valley, and at pullouts along the way you can see mounds on the valley floor called "palsas." These mounds are formed by frost action in deep beds of organic peat. At Mile 40.8, after reaching the valley floor, look for a vegetated mound that rises from a small pond. This is a "pingo," or ice-cored mound, that has begun to melt.

On its way to the MacLaren River crossing, the road runs atop an old terminal moraine left by the MacLaren Glacier at the end of its most recent advance. The glacier extended far to the south during the height of the ice ages, and during that time the ice was 5,200 feet thick at this spot. Watch the kettle ponds for red-throated loons and emperor geese. Grizzly bears and wolves are also common on the valley floor, but the tall brush usually hides them. A lodge at the west end of the bridge is a snowmobiling center in the winter.

The road climbs the far wall of the valley, heading for Crazy Notch. This unusual geologic feature was carved through a ridge of basalt by a stream that flowed from the great ice sheet that occupied the shelf above. After passing through Crazy Notch, the highway continues westward atop sinuous ridges called "eskers." These are formed by streams that flow through tunnels beneath a stationary glacier. The streams continuously deposit cobbles and sediments until the tunnels are filled and the streams are forced to melt their way upward through the ice. When the climate warms and the ice melts, the ridges of sediment remain standing above the basin floor. Some of the larger kettle ponds in this area provide habitat for common loons, trumpeter swans, and beavers. There are more eskers west of Clearwater Creek (Mile 56), and the ragged, volcanic peaks of the Clearwater Mountains soon rise ahead.

The road swings southward around the end of this range, and you can see the Susitna River to the south. It flows through a tapestry of brilliant meadows, shining lakes, and stately stands of spruce. Watch for moose in the tall brush along the roadside; this is one of the few good areas to see them from this highway. The road bears northwest toward a bridge over the river. This area was the site of skirmishes between clans of the Ahtna Indians. These clans defended their hunting and fishing territories and often would starve rather than trespass on the hunting grounds of their neighbors. To the north along the river, the valley of Valdez Creek was known to the Ahtna as C'ilaanaa, or "Place Where Game Abounds." It was later to become an important gold-mining district.

Just before you reach the bridge, you will come to a spur road that runs northward to the Valdez Creek Mine. Gold-bearing gravel along the creek was deposited by a stream before the area was glaciated. That deposit became known as the Tammany Channel. Glacial ice buried the deposit as it leveled the area, and Valdez Creek took a new course. Since then, the creek has concentrated gold from the old Tammany Channel and gravels and from veins in the bedrock.

Gold was discovered here in 1897 by W.G. Jack and a party of miners who had prospected all the way up the Susitna River. They named the stream "Swollen Creek," because their eyes were almost swollen shut from the bites of mosquitoes. The party soon ran out of food and had to leave, and the gold deposit on Swollen Creek became a lost and legendary lode.

The Valdez Creek gold field was rediscovered in 1903 by a party of prospectors from Valdez, who named the stream after their hometown. They sparked a minor gold rush, and prospectors from all over Alaska converged on this remote spot high in the mountains. Many of the local Ahtna Indians moved into the new gold camp to become claim-holders and miners, while other members of the tribe hunted wild game to supply the miners with food. The early days of drift mining in the placer gravels were hard; timber around Valdez Creek was quickly depleted, and logs had to be hauled in from Butte Creek far to the southwest to make mine-shaft timbers, cabins, and firewood.

By 1913, the small drift-mine operations had taken most of the easily recovered gold -- a total of $300,000 worth. The Valdez Mining Company bought most of the claims that year and began a succession of unprofitable attempts to mine the gravel on a large scale. In 1925, a prospector named "Laughing Ole" found the mother lode, a vein of quartz in the bedrock that contained gold in its hard-rock form. This started a new flurry of activity, but by 1928 only a dozen miners were working shafts in the bedrock. During World War II, the government shut down gold-mining operations to free men and equipment for the mining of strategic metals such as iron, copper, and tungsten. After the war, mining on Valdez Creek continued on a sporadic basis.

A bridge spans the Susitna at Mile 79, and after crossing it the road follows the west bank of the river upstream. Far downstream lie the impassable rapids of Devil's Canyon, where the river cuts a steep gorge through the heart of the Talkeetna Mountains. Watch for grizzly bears on the gravel outwash plain along the river. Small lakes provide habitat for trumpeter swans, wigeons, and scaup, and the Arctic warbler flits through the riverside brush.

At Mile 82, the road reaches a small lodge at the site of a roadhouse that originally served the Valdez Creek mining camp. The original structure is still standing -- a small log cabin that could seat five miners at a time for meals and could sleep twelve on crowded pallets. You can see the Valdez Creek Mine site across the river from here.

Beyond the lodge, the highway climbs to the brow of a hill that overlooks a vast expanse of brushy tundra known as the Monahan Flats. Beyond the flats rise two of the tallest peaks in the area, Mount Deborah (12,339 feet/3,761 meters) to the west and Hess Mountain (11,940 feet/3,639 meters) just to the east of it. The core of the Alaska range is made of metamorphic rock, while the ranges to the south are a mix of volcanic stone and ancient seafloor sediments. The West Fork Glacier pours down Mount Deborah, and you can see its snout clearly from the road. For a better view, climb the small hillock north of the road at Mile 85.

The lowlands are pocked with kettle lakes left over from the last glaciation; hooded mergansers and Arctic loons inhabit the smaller meres, while common loons float on the larger ones. Many of these lakes freeze all the way to the bottom in the winter. Monahan Flats is a winter range for the Nelchina caribou herd, and during the summer you can sometimes spot small bands of caribou in the uplands along the road. The uplands south of the road are home to the golden plover and long-tailed jaeger, and they offer outstanding cross-country hiking possibilities.

The road now crosses an imperceptible but important drainage divide. Runoff to the east flows via the Susitna River to Cook Inlet on the rim of the North Pacific, while to the west of the divide, runoff drains northward into the Yukon River watershed and then to the Bering Sea. Watch the mountains to the north for a glimpse of the Nenana Glacier. The first stream you cross on the west side of the divide is Brushkana Creek at Mile 104. There is a primitive campground along its west bank.

The road then drops gently through increasingly brushy terrain to reach the banks of the Nenana River. Its protected valley is home to a vigorous forest of white spruce, which is the dominant tree of well-drained soils in the Alaskan interior. You can see Pyramid Peak to the north from a turnout at Mile 116. This summit is thought to be the core of an ancient volcano. It gets its rusty color from iron oxides within the rock. A log cabin a mile farther on was built as a shelter by the Alaska Road Commission in the 1920s.

The road soon climbs a rise, passing between Joe Lake (to the south) and Jerry Lake. These lakes mark the divide between the silty Nenana and its clear-flowing tributary to the south, the Jack River. Atop the rise at Mile 130.1 you will have an excellent view of Denali (20,320 feet/6,194 meters), the tallest peak on the continent. If measured from base to summit instead of from sea level, this mountain is taller than Mount Everest.

The northern end of the Talkeetna Mountains rises to the south, while to the north the tundra-covered slopes of Reindeer Mountain provide habitat for caribou in the autumn. Just before reaching the town of Cantwell, the road again becomes paved and drops to the edge of the Jack River's braided, willow-choked channels. During the winter, groups of more than twenty moose have been spotted here. At Mile 134, the highway reaches Cantwell and a junction with the Parks Highway, where it ends.

Seward Run

The Seward Highway begins as a six-lane expressway that runs through the suburbs and shopping malls east of Anchorage. As the buildings and telephone poles fall away, the mighty inner peaks of the Chugach Mountains reveal themselves through glacier-carved gaps in the foothills. At the edge of town is Potter Marsh, a productive wetland ecosystem that offers habitat for wading birds and waterfowl. It was created when the railroad embankment dammed several sluggish streams at the edge of Turnagain Arm. A wooden causeway runs over the brackish marshland, and viewing platforms allow close observation of the silver, pink, and king salmon that spawn here.

The highway soon seeks the shoreline of Turnagain Arm and becomes a two-lane road. Turnagain Arm is a long, fjordlike bay crowded by the Chugach Mountains on the north and the Kenai Mountains on the far shore. Captain James Cook explored this area during his quest for a Northwest Passage in 1778 and named the inlet the River Turnagain. It seems curious today to call this estuary a river, but before the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, it was 8 feet shallower. It emptied completely at low tide to expose the tangled channels of the rivers that feed it. Looking east across the waters of Cook Inlet, you can see Mount Spurr, an extinct volcano.

The highway enters Chugach State Park at Mile 115. The park headquarters occupies the Potter Section House by the roadside. Stations such as this one were built at regular intervals along the Alaska Railroad to house section gangs, which maintained the track. This one has been converted to a visitor center, and it features a collection of historic photographs as well as an old rotary snowplow mounted on a locomotive that was used to clear avalanches from the railroad tracks.

Beyond the section house, the highway clings to the base of steep slopes at the edge of the water, following the tracks of the Alaska Railroad. Numerous hiking trails begin at the roadside and climb steeply into the Chugach Mountains, and a number of small waterfalls tumble from the inaccessible heights.

At Mile 110, the road rounds a rocky headland known as Beluga Point. There are a number of interpretive plaques beside a large pullout here. This promontory has attracted people for more than 8,000 years. The first wayfarers to stop here were probably the predecessors of the Sugpiaq, or Chugach Eskimos, a maritime people who traveled the seas in kayaks and open baidarkas, another type of skin boat. Dwarfed spruce trees, blasted by winter gales and sculpted by salt spray, grow among the rocks that jut into the sea. Coin-operated telescopes aid the search for beluga whales, which can sometimes be seen from this point. These small, white whales are quite sociable, traveling in pods that follow migratory schools of salmon and eulachon. They are relatively safe in Turnagain Arm, which is too shallow for their major predator, the orca, or killer whale. If you turn your binoculars upward, you might spot Dall sheep or even mountain goats on the slopes above the highway between Beluga Point and Indian Creek.

This stretch of highway is also a good place to watch the bore tide, a wall of water that races up the inlet with advancing tides. The bore tide forms because the changing of the tides is exactly synchronized with the 12-hour journey that the tide makes up the inlet. As a result, a slug of water travels down the inlet with each receding tide, reaching the sea in time to meet the incoming tide, which shoves the water back up the inlet in a tidal bore. Turnagain Arm has one of the greatest tidal fluxes in the world, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. The tidal bore travels at 10 knots and can reach a height of six feet during a "spring tide," when the sun, moon, and earth align.

If you want to see the bore tide, you will have to do some advance planning with a tide table: the tidal bore arrives along this stretch of highway about 2 hours and 15 minutes after low tide in Anchorage. The highway reaches the Indian Valley Mine at Mile 104, just before reaching a small settlement along Indian Creek. Following the 1896 gold strike at Hope, prospectors combed the shores of Turnagain Arm for other lodes of the precious metal. In 1910, a grizzled miner named Peter Strong discovered and staked a vein of quartz and gold that ran through the bedrock on the north shore of Turnagain Arm. He dug an "adit," or horizontal shaft, into the mountainside and began excavation. He worked the claims on and off until 1949, when at the age of 95 he moved to the Pioneer Home in Sitka. He died a short time later. His cabin and mine have become a National Historic Site, with a small museum and gold-panning opportunities.

The highway continues eastward along the shoreline, crossing Indian and Bird creeks, both of which have strong runs of pink salmon. Across the water, Alpenglow Mountain is the most distinctive peak in the Kenai Mountains. The major valley west of this peak bears Sixmile Creek, where the gold-rush boom town of Sunrise City once stood at the edge of the water. The road climbs around a major headland, and avalanche chutes mark the places where periodic snowslides tumble from the peaks above the road. The slides clear away the stiff-trunked conifers, but flexible shrubs such as the Sitka alder bend under the weight of the snow and flourish in the open sunlight of these steep clearings. You soon can see the spectacular peaks at the head of Turnagain Arm, clad in glaciers and eternal snow fields.

The road leaves Chugach State Park at the next bay, which contains the town of Girdwood, at Mile 90. This town was a rough-and-tumble center for prospecting activity on the north shore of Turnagain Arm during the late 1800s. As you look inland, the craggy peaks of Summit and Goat mountains wall off the head of the valley, bearing three visible glaciers on their slopes. The flats along the shoreline subsided during the 1964 earthquake, and the salt-water tides moved in and killed the trees near the water's edge, forming a "ghost forest." A spur road leads north to the center of Girdwood, which was moved to higher ground following the quake.

Today, Girdwood is a year-round destination for tourists. Winter visitors flock to the Alyeska Resort, the only major ski resort in Alaska. Summer tourists visit the Crow Creek Mine, located on Crow Creek Road, 5 miles inland. The mine was established in 1897 to work the placer gravel along Crow Creek. It was originally run by a small outfit known locally as "The Crow Creek Boys." The gold-bearing gravels occurred in two distinct formations. The surface gravel was easy to mine and was removed quickly, but a much larger pay streak lay in the ancient stream gravels, buried beneath a thick layer of glacial overburden laid down during the ice ages. Miners built an elevated flume to direct Crow Creek away from the gravels so that they could excavate the deep placer bed with hydraulic cannons. The mine was worked commercially until 1957 and yielded an average of 700 ounces of gold a month during its heyday. It is now managed as a historic site, offering a collection of picturesque log buildings and the opportunity to pan for gold.

From Girdwood, the Seward Highway rounds the base of the next mountain and enters a similar valley, where the Twentymile River flows to the sea. Look southeast for a view of the Skookum Glacier, which descends from a fold in Carpathian Peak. The toe of this glacier is buried in rocky debris, a testimony to the frequent rock slides that hurtle down from the surrounding slopes As the highway rounds the end of Turnagain Arm, a train depot at Mile 80 marks the spot where vehicles can be loaded onto flatcars for the overland trip to Whittier, a port on the Prince William Sound ferry route. The Seward Highway bends southward, crossing the wandering channels of Portage Creek. The small town of Portage once stood here, but it was flooded repeatedly by tides in the wake of the 1964 earthquake and had to be abandoned. The Portage Highway runs eastward from this point, providing access to the spectacular glaciers of the Whittier Icefield (see Portage Highway Sidetrip toward the end of this chapter).

The Seward Highway continues around the head of Turnagain Arm and crosses the Placer River. The wetlands in this area sometimes harbor harlequin ducks, and you can occasionally spot bald eagles in the dead snags along the shore. At Ingram Creek, the highway turns inland, climbing steadily through a lush forest of Sitka spruce. This coastal tree has no means of controlling its water loss, so its range is restricted to seacoasts where frequent fog and high humidity keep it moist.

At Mile 68, the road crests the top of a tundra-clad divide known as Turnagain Pass. Meadows spangled with wildflowers mark the swales where snow fields linger into the summer months. Rocky peaks rise all around, dappled with small snow fields or drifts that never melt. The peaks originated as seafloor sediments deposited on the continental shelf 65 million years ago.

Next, the road drops into the Bertha Creek drainage. Here, a drier climate suits the white spruce, which dominates the forests of the Alaskan interior. Substantial tributaries join the creek to create the small river known as Sixmile Creek. An intricate bridge spans Canyon Creek at Mile 57. Just beyond it, the Hope Highway heads east on its way to a picturesque gold-rush town on the shores of Turnagain Arm.

The Seward Highway begins to climb again and reaches the long pass that contains Summit Lake and its neighbor to the south, Upper Summit Lake. Only the valley floors are forested here: the lower slopes of the mountains are choked with impenetrable brush, and alpine tundra covers the blunted points of the outer peaks. Beyond this first rank of summits lie stark, barren crags.

The Seward Highway drops through a small valley to a junction with the Sterling Highway at Mile 37. Tern Lake lies just south of this junction; its weedy margins and floating mats of vegetation are used by Arctic terns as nesting platforms. Barrow's goldeneyes and common loons are also spotted here with some regularity. Salmon spawn in the outlet of the lake, and you can view them from a Forest Service campground on the western shore.

Steep mountains rise to impressive heights around the valley as the Seward Highway continues southward. The road reaches the Trail Lakes at Mile 32.5, and a lakeshore hatchery raises salmon fingerlings that are planted in lakes and streams throughout the Kenai Peninsula. There is a camping area along Upper Trail Lake at Mile 30.

After passing Upper Trail Lake, the road enters the settlement of Moose Pass. A water wheel at the Estes Grocery turns a grindstone, and a sign proclaims that "Moose Pass is a peaceful little town. If you have an ax to grind, do it here." The road then passes Lower Trail Lake and follows the Trail River down to the heavily timbered shore of Kenai Lake. The road follows the shoreline to the head of the lake, where you will cross the many channels of the Snow River.

To the east, the sedge meadows and spruce copses of the Paradise Valley are flanked by stunning crags. The most impressive of these is Paradise Peak, which rises south of the valley and is graced with several glaciers. A narrow, forested valley leads down to the head of Resurrection Bay, where the highway ends in the town of Seward.

The first European settlement in this area was a ship-building camp built by Russian fur traders under the direction of Alexei Baranoff in 1793. Local spruce was used for lumber, and tar to seal the vessels was made from spruce pitch, sulphur, whale oil, and ocher. A number of small three-masted merchantmen were launched from this shipyard, substantiating Baranoff's boast that his Shelikhov Company was the leader in the Alaskan fur trade.

Bolstered by political approval in the court of the czar, Baranoff's company was subsequently granted a monopoly on the Alaskan trade, and the competing Lebedev-Lastochkin Company was forced to merge with it to form the Russian American Company. When the territory was purchased by the United States, this powerful trading house became the Alaska Commercial Company, which was to become the dominant mercantile force in frontier Alaska.

Seward is headquarters for Kenai Fjords National Park, which encompasses a vast stretch of the Kenai coastline. Glaciers descend from the 950-square-mile Harding Icefield and pour through steep valleys to meet the sea in narrow fjords. Off the coast, the Pacific Plate is actively subducting beneath the continental margin. As it does, it causes frequent earthquakes during which the coastline sinks into the sea. The long fjords and circular bays were carved by glaciers well above the high-tide mark, but as the coastline subsided, salt water inundated these glacial valleys and cirques. Tour boats ply the waters of the park, visiting tidewater glaciers that calve icebergs into the sea. Offshore seabird rookeries feature puffins, murres, and kittiwakes, while marine mammals that are commonly sighted include humpback and killer whales, sea otters, and the endangered Steller's sea lion. Shorebound travelers can hike along the spectacular Exit Glacier, which is riddled with deep crevasses that emit a distinctive bluish glow. The Exit Glacier Road departs the Seward Highway north of town at Mile 3.7. The town itself offers a number of tourist activities. Hiking possibilities in the Seward area include the Mount Marathon Trail, a strenuous climb to the summit of the peak that rises above the townsite. Each year, a no-holds-barred footrace is held along this trail; contestants race to the top of the mountain, then careen down the slopes at breakneck speeds to reach the finish line. A longer, gentler trail follows the coastline southward to Caines Head State Park, where old naval gun emplacements were built during World War II to defend the port against Japanese attack. The Seward Museum features artifacts from the city's pioneer days, as well as displays about the 1964 earthquake. The waterfront and boat harbor always bustle with fishing boats, making a colorful and interesting sight. A silver-salmon derby held in mid-August attracts salt-water anglers from around the state.

Portage Highway Sidetrip - This paved road runs eastward for 5.5 miles to reach a Forest Service visitor center at Portage Glacier. The road begins by following Portage Creek up a marshy valley pocked with ponds. Some of these ponds are old gravel pits that were intentionally flooded to create spawning habitat for salmon. Canada geese and whistling swans visit the ponds during the spring and autumn, while harlequin ducks are summer residents along the creek. Both grizzly and black bears visit the lowland when the salmon are in; watch for them on the valley floor. The Explorer Glacier is the first of two hanging glaciers that cling to the mountain crags east of the road. The second is Middle Glacier, which can be seen from the Willawaw Ponds. After 5.2 miles, the highway reaches the foot of Portage Lake and splits. The road to the right follows the lakeshore for 1.5 miles to a tour-boat dock. Near its end, you will have a fine view of the Byron Glacier. A one-mile hiking trail leads to its snout. Turn left at the foot of the lake for the visitor center, which features interpretive exhibits, an award-winning film presentation, and an indoor platform built over the lake for iceberg viewing. The ice floes calve away from the foot of the Portage Glacier, which lies beyond a rocky shoulder and cannot be seen from the visitor center. As recently as 1893, the toe of the Portage Glacier rested at the current location of the visitor center, but it has since retreated. It left behind a basin carved 825 feet deep into the bedrock. The basin has filled with meltwater to form Portage Lake. Bard Peak dominates the head of the lake, with the Bard Glacier perched atop its eastern face. To the left of the peak is the Shakespeare Glacier, which is still advancing. To the right of the peaks is the Burns Glacier, once used as a portage route by Chugach Eskimos and Russian fur traders carrying small boats between Turnagain Arm and Prince William Sound.

Hope Highway Sidetrip - This paved byway runs west for 17 miles (27 kilometers) to reach the former gold-mining town of Hope. The road begins by following the valley of Sixmile Creek to the shore of Turnagain Arm. This stream was heavily worked by prospectors in the late 1800s, and today its raging Class V rapids draw a rush of serious whitewater enthusiasts. The stream pours into the sea at the former site of Sunrise City (Mile 10), which boasted a population of more than 5,000 miners during the height of the gold rush. The townsite has disappeared over time. From here, the road runs westward along the coast, offering sporadic views of the Chugach Mountains on the far side of Turnagain Arm. The brooding Kenai Mountains loom over a succession of tiny coves and rocky headlands. The mountains part as the road enters the valley of Resurrection Creek, where the town of Hope harks back to the glory days of the gold rush. Alexander King headed up Turnagain Arm in 1888 to prospect for gold. He never staked a claim, but two years later he showed up in Kenai with four "pokes," or sacks, filled with gold. Charles Miller staked the first claim on Resurrection Creek. He leased his claim to latecomers for a share of the profits, and by his own admission "made a good living for ten years and never hit a lick." The town of Hope was soon established at the mouth of Resurrection Creek. It was named in honor of Percy Hope, the youngest of a party of prospectors who arrived at the gold fields by schooner. Later, big mining corporations poured into the area, buying exhausted claims with the vain hope of working them using more efficient methods. Geologist F. H. Moffit made the following caustic comment about their futile efforts: "It is doubtful if there is any other part of Alaska where time and money has been wasted in a more enthusiastically ignorant manner or concerning which stockholders in mining companies have been more utterly misled than some places on the Kenai Peninsula." In 1911, a prospector named John Hirshey located the Lucky Strike vein on Palmer Creek, and his hard-rock mine became a steady producer of gold through the 1930s, accounting for most of the district's production during that time. Today, you will find rustic cabins, clapboard buildings, and a small museum that highlights Hope's gold-rush roots. From town, the Palmer Creek Road climbs into the mountains, providing access to a primitive campground and the head of the Resurrection Trail, a popular backpacking route that travels the length of the Kenai Peninsula through the wildest and most remote mountains.".