Sept 11, 2009 - Glenallen to Palmer

Camped last evening at Sourdough Creek crossing, on the Gulkana River. A hard shell of ice on the tent fly this morning...but the day warming, crystal skies overhead.  Heading south on the Richardson Highway, views of the Wrangell Mtns southeast; Mount Wrangell ( a sleeping volcano....), Mount Sanford and Mount Drum prominent. At Glenallen, we turn back to the west on the Glenn Highway.  Now flanked on the south by the ridge of the Chugach Range, Talkeetna Mountains to our north; Passing one glacial "tongue" after another, wide ice sheets oozing out of the Chugach and onto the plain;  Talzina Glacier, then Nelchina, over Eureka Summit to Glacier Point and "The Lion's Head", a volcanic remnant, prominent in the center of the valley;   Our first views of Matanuska Glacier, curving out of the Chugach and sweeping north alongside the highway. 

Below the snow line on the lower slopes of the Chugach, breathtaking fall colors showing; muted rust, ochre, sienna mixing with the intense chartruese, gold, and oranges of deciduous trees in the valley bottom. The hillsides look like crush velvet. 

Hiking the Edge Trail along the glacial "outwash plain" of Matanuska Glacier