Joyfully Retired

The purpose of this weekly feature is to share some of the places we’ve been. They are places that stay with us for one reason or another. Join us. Post a picture on your blog, go to the comment section here and leave your link. Visit others who share their Favorite Places. Feel free to borrow the button.

This week’s Favorite Place is The McCarthy Road, Alaska

Last week I showed you a picture of a lily-pond in Alaska. If you missed it, go here. This week I want to show you the beginning and the end of the road where we discovered the lily-pond. This is a very interesting road, called the McCarthy Road.

I’ll have to give you a general idea of where this is because you aren’t going to find it on an ordinary road map. First find Valdez. Go north from there and  in about a hundred miles you’ll see a sign that says “This way to Chitina”. Nice blacktop road with beautiful scenic views. After about twenty to thirty miles you’ll come to the little village of Chitina (pop. 132), pictured on the left.

This is the beginning of the McCarthy Road but its also where the blacktop ends. For the next sixty miles it is all gravel, mud, and occasionally a one lane road. Although it is only sixty miles it took us four hours to make the trip. But what a trip it was! There are no houses or dwellings of any kind until you get to the end. We saw very few vehicles. But we saw numerous mountains, rivers, streams, lakes and that beautiful lily-pond.

At the end of the road we found the beautifl glacier shown at the right. We also found a foot bridge across the Kennicott River which leads to the village of McCarthy (pop. 70). We did not go across but, if you want to, there is camping, lodging, restaurants and other tourist attractions on the other side. For us the beauty was along the road. It has become one of our most memorable day trips and qualifies as a Favorite Place.