A slow start and then on the road by 9:30, we head out of Anchorage. It’s not hard, one motorway south and one north – north is our route. Soon, we turn right towards Palmer, site of the annual Alaska State Fair where giant veggies, a product of long daylight hours, are proudly shown. From here we follow the Matanuska valley, a river at first, wide with evidence of the volume of water that must flow down when the snow melts, then eventually the glacier itself. We are amazed you can see this huge glacier from the road…not used to that, usually have to hike miles to see a glacier. This, it turns out though, is par for the course in Alaska. The land of approximately 100 000 glaciers. 

The original roadhouse

Our first stop is the Eureka roadhouse, one of those quintessentially American places, decked out in Fourth of July regalia all year round and serving bean soup ($6 for a bowl), burgers and a selection of homemade pies. Once again the main meal is not finished in favour of dessert – banana cream heaven. Gordon starts up a conversation with a local, gun advocate and politically opinionated, they’ll be a while, so I wander out to take pictures.

Back on the road, we have an uneventful, though very pretty drive to the town of Glenallen. Another right hand turn and we are on the Richardson Highway, 70 miles of gorgeous down to Valdez. There is a brief, but amusing stop for roadworks early on in this section. We are the first car and the stop/go guy is up for a chat. From Minnesota originally, he’s not sure why he’s in Alaska – just ended up here, I guess. We ask what he does during the winter (roadworks are a summer activity) and, after a butt crack scratch and a pause, he replies, “chop wood mostly”. Further along the way, we cross Thomson Pass, an area of astonishing beauty, chock full of mountains and you guessed it, glaciers. We stop too many times for pictures and once to walk out to the Worthington glacier, a pretty, compact jumble of ice almost suspended above its river valley.

Valdez is the terminus of the Alaska pipeline and also a productive fishing harbour. Driving in, I see a bear. It’s desperately trying to hide behind an outcrop of tall grass but in my first successful wildlife spotting, I point it out to Gordon and we turn around to take a look. He asks if I want to pat it and I wonder if he’s already keen to be rid of me. We find our hotel easily, check in, drop bags, then swiftly walk around it, with a quick detour to visit the baby bunnies that are in the garden, to the bar. The bar is located right on the water and offers alluring views back over the harbour and to the snow capped mountains beyond. We sip local beer and munch on guacamole burgers (as good as they sound) before turning in for the night.