We drove back into Anchorage and back into our parking spot on the street at the end of Wayne & Marilyn’s driveway. We had planned on just spending one more night in their driveway, but we were again having too much fun. Shortly after we got there, Wayne took us out for more bird watching, and to see if we could see the belugas. We didn’t see any belugas, but we saw lots more birds, as well as a harbor seal where there usually aren’t any seals. The next day, Wayne was super kind and patient and drove us all around Anchorage doing errands. We spent hours in REI buying new rain gear and new binoculars, got our propane tanks filled, went to the post office, and went to Costco for chia. We also did more “urban” birding, had a bunch of exotic adult beverages, and talked a lot over excellent meals.
Wayne again went above and beyond the next morning and took us downtown so Tom could renew our America the Beautiful Access Pass, and I could pick up some local gifts. We then sadly left them and got fuel and went food shopping before heading for Palmer where we went to the Musk Ox Farm to see the musk ox and get some qiviut. We thought we might make it a little further towards Glennallen, but between rain and the fact that we still needed to take a walk, we backtracked a few miles and got permission to park at the Palmer Visitor Center for the night, where we had access to the Rail Trail for a walk. The police in Palmer were polite enough to wait until 8:30AM to tell us we actually weren’t allowed to camp where we had camped the last night, but it didn’t matter because we had planned to head for Glennallen and Valdez that day anyway.
We drove the very scenic Glenn Highway, and saw glaciers despite the rain and fog. We took a hike in Glennallen on a community nature trail, very cleverly signed by the local school’s science classes, so besides having a nice walk in the woods we learned a few things. We then drove about 10 minutes south of Glennallen to a paved lot that used to be a lot for a boat launch, although the river access is now closed, which is fine for campers since it leaves more room in the paved lot for campers. It wasn’t the nicest parking spot ever, but it was quiet and put us in a good spot to head for Valdez the next day.
