So we decided to drive to the present end of the Copper River Highway, which until a few years ago terminated at the Million Dollar Bridge. However, in recent years, the road to said Bridge has been washed out, and it now terminates shortly after crossing the Copper River.
The drive there is really beautiful, through low swamp that would be unbearably buggy in Fairbanks, but the constant breeze and cooler temperatures in Cordova keep bugs down.
Honkers arriving! Both Cordova and Homer host annual "Shorebird Festivals" to welcome them back. It had occurred a week prior to our trip.
The road goes along the bed of the old railroad that used to go to the Kennecott copper mines, at the time the richest copper strike in the world. After the copper was extracted, Kennecott became a ghost town, but at some point there was apparently a plan to turn the railroad bed into a highway and then extend this highway North to Chitina, but that plan got interrupted by the 1964 earthquake. Anyway, that is why this tiny rural highway whose only current purpose is for scenery and hiking is this wide and straight:
Swan! Either trumpeter or tundra. I cannot tell the difference, I am afraid.
A glacial view, one of many:
DL ponders:
The mouth of the Copper is quite anticlimactic. It is a much more violent river than the Tanana, but the mouth spreads into a gentle delta of many streams:
The end of the highway. This is Not the Million Dollar Bridge:
Another glacial view:
The half-a-bridge:
At the river, there was some snow left!
Camera timer selfie!
Down beneath the bridge, you can see how swift, deep, and turbulent the Copper is. This is why dipnetters in Chitna tie themselves to the shore. The Ahtna people say "The Copper never gives up her dead."
More swans!
A creepy section of forest. The entire road had a lot of standing dead trees. I'm not sure why. DL hypothesized that we were observing a process of succession, from a forest to a swamp.
These crazy yellow flowers were everywhere. I wish I had put something in the photo so you could see the scale. They were like the length of bananas, and wider.
Look how dam cool these beavers made their home environs! This dam was downstream:
And this dam was downstream:
Making a dam nice pond in between:
And you could see they were still dam hard at work:
Still making dam progress:
Another glacial view:
When we got back to town, it was raining again. We took a walk up behind town, and I showed DL my old post-supper walk, including the creepy old school. DL led me around to look at the side of it:
Gang-related graffiti! These Cordova kids apparently have a sense of humor!
The next morning, the weather was still mild (although drizzly). We got up early for breakfast and watched the fishing fleet head out, one boat by one:
A clearer day!
We are home now. The ladies were super happy to reclaim their couch:
Holy Dog got some very regal photos of them on this visit!
Cricket!
Starbuck!
Spring also arrived Very Suddenly while we were gone. Roo and Cricket insisted in supervising me swapping out my tires:
Roo (the Official Spokesdog of Comings and Goings) "Rooooooo'ed" to be let out. Then, after I had lowered the jack on the last tire and rolled the last winter tire into storage, she promptly "Rooooooooo'ed" to go back inside.
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