Day 53 - July 23 - Palmer to Valdez - 262 miles

We followed the Matanuska River from Palmer, along Highway 1, past Moose Creek and Chickaloon, to the Matanuska Glacier.  Impressive sight, but no photos.  The air had quite a bit of smoke, so it was not too picturesque.  In Glenallen, we made a right turn onto Highway 4, heading south toward Valdez.  Shortly, we pulled into the visitor center for Wrangell-Elias National Park.   Wow, would have never known that this national park is the size of Switzerland, with more mountains.   Again, smoke obscured the sky, but we were able to see the outline of one of the volcanos.   Like Denali, most of this national park is wild, as there are only two unimproved roads entering the park (60 mile dirt road).  After the visitor center, Highway 4 headed south through the Copper Valley, heading up to Thompson Pass. It was a little drizzly going over the pass, which is only 2600 feet, but drops down to sea level in five miles.  Not like the Sierra Nevada, where we live at 2680 feet, which takes over 40 miles to reach the same elevation.   These mountains rise up from sea level at a very steep rate!   From the highway, we could see the Alyeska Pipeline, until it went underground again.  The pipeline is buried as it goes over the pass, to prevent damage from avalanches.