Alaska diaries : Hatcher Pass

Waking up to a lovely, warm, sunny day (and with rain announced for the whole of the second week of our holiday, which - luckily - we managed to avoid!), we decided that it was the perfect weather for going out on a day of discovery. We decided to go and visit Hatcher Pass, which is pretty close to where we were staying, near to the towns of Wasilla and Palmer. It is a mountain pass that goes through the southwest part of the Talkeetna Mountains (you may remember our visit to Talkeetna that I blogged about here) and it is named after Robert Hatcher, a prospector and miner.

Our first stop was this beautiful view of the Little Su (or Little Susitna, for its full name) River, which is made of the water coming down from the Mint Glacier. In the top photo, it looks so calm and peaceful.

However, looking downstream, the river actually runs quite fast. Unbelievably (well, maybe not quite so unbelievably, this being Alaska !), we were the only people here enjoying the view.

Time to take some "look at how pretty it all is" selfies, then we headed back to the car to continue our trip.

My most overused word on the way up was "wow" ! It's all so natural, unspoilt and just plain beautiful. In fact, it's hard to know which which side of the car to look out of, as it's beautiful wherever you look !

It's a fairly good road up along Hatcher Pass - well, by Alaskan standards anyway ! The lower part is paved and open year round. From Independence Mine (see below) upwards, it's a gravel road and is only open during the summer months (roughly July to mid-September, depending on snow conditions). This sounded crazy to us, as it was T-shirt weather and this area of Alaska was just coming out of a heatwave, but I believe them ! 

I felt like we were in Austria, looking out across the Alps, rather than in Alaska. It's really beautiful.

Again, I couldn't decide which direction to face to get the best shot, so I just took loads of photos !

Our next stop was the last chance to use the restrooms (otherwise known as toilets) before heading further up the pass. This is the Independence Bowl parking area, where you can park if you want to go and visit the Independence Mine State Historic Park. There's gold in them there hills and, as well as visiting the buildings, you can also pan for gold yourselves. How cool is that?!

We weren't heading up to the mine today though so it was back to the car for us.

We soon arrived at the top and gazed out at the rivers running through the valleys. I was trying to imagine how this would all look covered in snow - probably just as it will be in a few short months.

Pierre was having more fun pretending to be a moose !

We watched a lone paraglider running and leaping off the hillside, then gliding back and forth across the sky in front of us.

There was a small lake here which was perfect for reflecting the clouds.

A great place for taking some family snaps.

And selfies for the kids. Now, I have nothing against selfies, but you miss out on all the surrounding view so I still prefer my picture above ! Just call me old-fashioned !

This was a great place for exploring. Pierre loved the little bridge over the rocks and we all spotted the little stream, beginning to wind its way down from the top of the mountain. This probably ends up flowing into the river we saw at the very beginning of our trip.

There were plenty of rocks to go scrambling over, looking for crystals, pretty rocks and - who knows? - maybe some gold? (Well, Pierre believed it and kept looking anyway !)

I wasn't lying about the crystals though ! I'm guessing this is quartz ?

This is another one of those areas that I'd love to see covered in snow. It wouldn't happen though, as this part of the route is closed during the (very long !) Alaskan winter.

It was lovely to see all the crystal clear water running down from the peaks - even after a good week or two of intense heatwave.

Time to head back up to the car, past the lake again.

You may have noticed some pink flowers in several of these photos - it's Rosebay Willowherb as we call it in England, or Fireweed as they call it in Alaska, and it is literally EVERYWHERE you look ! Sometimes, you look out of the car window and just see vast expanses of pink as far as you can see.

Time to start heading back down. Back to the views of green mountains and valleys, that really reminded me of my student days in Wales.

Coming down this side of the pass, the one word that sprang to mind was green. 

We made one last stop on the way down. We walked five minutes through some fir trees to take a final look at the river. Jim, who we were staying with, stayed in the car as he had a quick phone call to make. "Watch out for bears", he grinned, as we headed down to see the water. We all smiled back and strolled off happily, cameras in hand. When we got back to the car, he said "I wasn't joking by the way. This really IS bear country !" I faithfully declared that that was the last time we'd go exploring without him and his gun (which he always has on him, just in case he comes across a bear or a moose or something in a bad mood !)

Well, we didn't see any bears or moose on our whole trip in the wild (only in the zoo) but we DID spot an eagle flying up through the trees, which we still thought was pretty cool.

It's such a peaceful place - we only passed about two or three cars on our whole trip. A great place to just stop and breathe.

Driving back down to civilisation, we caught up with a huge lorry filled with water, spraying the dirt road all the way down. Jim told us that it was to keep the dust levels down. What a job - driving through the most fabulous scenery all day just spraying the roads with water. I have some serious career envy going on now !