Richardson Highway: Valdez to Glennallen

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Valdez

   Valdez sits at the head of a fjord in Prince William Sound, shut in by mountains so steep and so high that the town gets some of the heaviest snowfall in Alaska. Sit on the harbour wall and glaciers hang on the peaks all around, with fishing boats, sea otters and the odd bald eagle in front of you. It is a small town of under four thousand people, but it has real weight, since it is the southern end of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, where the oil pumped from the North Slope is loaded onto tankers.

   Read the complete Valdez write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Valdez is where the day begins. Next is Thompson Pass.

2. 2. Thompson Pass

   Thompson Pass sits at 855 metres, which sounds like nothing until you remember that the sea is only a few dozen kilometres behind you. The Chugach Mountains rise straight out of Prince William Sound, they catch every storm that comes in off the Gulf of Alaska, and this notch in the range is where the weather gets wrung out. The pass is famous for snow. It holds Alaska's records for snowfall, with a single winter in the early 1950s piling up close to a thousand inches, and the highway crews who keep it open will tell you stories you only half believe.

   Read the complete Thompson Pass write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Thompson Pass comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Worthington Glacier, mostly downhill.

3. 3. Worthington Glacier

   A few kilometres south of the top of Thompson Pass, the road swings round a bend and a river of ice is simply there, filling a side valley and hanging above a gravel bar. This is Worthington Glacier, and it is one of the few glaciers in Alaska you can reach on a motorcycle without anything more strenuous than putting the side stand down. There is a state recreation site with a parking area, a viewing platform and a short trail that leads up toward the terminus, close enough that you can see the blue colour in the crevasses.

   Read the complete Worthington Glacier write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Worthington Glacier. Next is Glennallen.

4. 4. Glennallen

   Alaska is big, and the Copper River Basin proves it. Glennallen sits in a broad, flat bowl of spruce forest and muskeg, ringed by some of the highest mountains in North America: the Wrangell Mountains stand to the east, with Mount Drum, Mount Sanford and the huge ice-clad bulk of Mount Wrangell, an active volcano that steams in cold weather. On a clear day the view from the highway is almost too large to take in, and a rider is aware of being a very small thing on a very long road.

   Read the complete Glennallen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Glennallen closes the day.