Hatcher Pass

The day before yesterday, my friend Wally and I decided to visit some mutual friends who live in Big Lake, about 50 miles away. After our enjoyable visit, we decided to cross Hatcher Pass on a whim.

Hatcher Pass is in the Talkeetna Mountains, outside of the town of Palmer. We decided to go in the back way from Willow, about 20 miles past Big Lake.

It's another twenty or thirty miles from Willow, up to the high country in the Talkeetna Mountains. We stopped several times along the way to look at things. These are wild Geraniums.

Bunchberry flowers

Lupine

Some beaver ponds right at timberline.

The view from above timberline.

This is an outbuilding from a mining operation below the pass.

Looking back the way we came. The high country in Alaska can be an unforgiving place. Even in the Summertime, Winter can come back at any time. Since we did this trip on a whim, we were taking a risk. I only wore a short sleeved shirt, and we did'nt even have any water. We were acting like tourists, but fortune shined on us, even if the sun did'nt.

The only wildlife we saw other than a few small birds, were Arctic Ground Squirrels. They look and act like Prairie Dogs.

We are climbing ever higher, and looking back to the little dirt road that is closed most of the year.

This is Summit Lake. It's all downhill from here.

We got rained on several times, but it did'nt amount to much. The mountains are more rugged on this side of the pass.

Every view is interesting. In life, if not in the photo.

Lush Summer vegetation grows on the lower slopes.

It got stormy again at the bottom. This is the view looking back at the mountains.

Daisies growing on the shoulder of the road look like twinkling stars in the night sky. We were down from the mountains in time to visit more friends living in Palmer. It was a good day.