After getting married in 2005, we had an incredible 3-week honeymoon in Italy. As hard as I worked on the wedding, Doug worked just as hard on the honeymoon and it was nothing short of spectacular! Due to demanding jobs, neither one of us had taken more than 1 week off as adults, so this was a big deal! We saw so many amazing places while there, but on the flight out of Italy I remember a conversation we had that included something like “that was incredible, but if I never see another religious painting again I’d be fine with that” and “yes, me too”. The thing is we’d been to many galleries and so many stunning churches that maybe we were overstimulated or maybe we were numb to yet another beautiful church? We had burnout and I mention this because after leaving Palmer, the drive along the Glenn Highway to Tok felt a bit like this.
Leaving Palmer, we passed through the Matanuska Valley with farming communities and mountain views. About 100 miles from Palmer, a massive valley glacier called the Matanuska Glacier can be seen from overlooks along the highway. Prominent rock formations and vividly colored mountainsides are up next. We rolled through the small town of Glennallen and later we stopped at the ranger station at the start of Nabesna Road which leads into the northern part of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, but given that the dirt road to the campground sounded grueling, we got back on the highway and finally found boondocking at an unnamed man-made lake just short of Tok.
Even as I write this, I sound a little whiny. The fact is we had a beautiful sunny day, very few other travelers on the road, a relatively smooth drive, and wonderful scenery, but burnout had set in. More pretty valleys, more big mountains, more wildflowers along the road. We were tired of figuring out what to see and where to stay. In short, we were tired of making decisions.
I’ve said many times that as great as our life of travel is, there are good days and bad days just like any normal person. This wasn’t a bad one…just one where I think we both hit a wall at the same time.
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I’d love to tell you more about all the things to see and do along the Glenn Highway, but I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have. What I can tell you from looking now at the pics is that it’s quite scenic.
