For all "Roll Call Alaska 2013" RVers:

 

We RVers are now, or soon will be, driving through some of the most interesting, visible, and photogenic geology in North America.  We will see some of earth’s oldest sedimentary rock around Banff and Jasper and some of the youngest igneous rock in the active volcanoes of the Alaska Peninsula, visible across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, Kenai, and Homer.  And in between those two bookends is just about every other age and type of geology that exists.  If you are interested in the mountain ranges, river valleys, glaciers, fjords, and volcanoes along your route and wondered why they are there, you are asking questions about geology.

We are leaving Denver in mid-June and are planning to cross the border at Osoyoos about 10 days later.  Then we plan to use the Milepost's "Central Access Route" to Kamloops, the "Western Access Route" to Prince George, and the Yellowhead Highway and Stewart-Cassiar Highway to Watson Lake.  We will travel the Alaska Highway to the South Klondike Highway, then on to Skagway and Haines (by ferry), the Haines Highway, then the Tok Cutoff and Richardson Highway to Valdez.  From there, we will go to Anchorage and the Kenai, up to Talkeetna, Denali, and Fairbanks and home through Dawson City, Whitehorse, Dawson Creek, Jasper, and Banff. 

I realize that we are going at a later date and in the opposite direction from many of you. So you may have already passed through some of the areas that we will not see until August or September.  But I have worked in Alaska on and off since 1972 and we visited Banff and Jasper just a few years ago.  So, if you have questions, I may know or can find the answer, even if I have not visited it yet this year.  And, if you are returning from Alaska via Valdez, the Tok Cutoff, Haines, Skagway, and the Cassiar-Yellowhead route, I will have already traveled through that area. 

If there are other geologists on the "Roll Call Alaska 2013" list, feel free to add your knowledge to the blog.  For those non-geologists who have questions, please feel free to attach your photos of interesting geologic features that you see to your responses on the blog or to personal messages to "fanrgs" on RV.net.  By the time all of us return from Alaska, maybe we will have put together a usable geologic road log for next year's Alaska Highway travelers--something that doesn't seem to exist on-line or in libraries in 2013.