Cordova, the town that has it all except a bridge.

In the early 1900s, Kennecott Mines was opened,one of the richest copper mines in the world. Deep in the mountains, the mine needed a way to transport all of its copper ore 196 miles to the town of Cordova. Thus the Copper River Northwestern Railway was conceived, and a bridge was built through the mountains.

A sampling of the mountains I'm talking about, with sea fog coming up the fjords.

As the railway approached Cordova, it had to deal with several glacial streams fed by numerous glaciers.

A trestle bridge was built that worked for decades, until the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964, which lifted the town of Cordova six feet, taking one end of the bridge with it. Since the mines had long ago shut down, the railroad secured the bridge from falling, but never rebuilt it. Instead, the Forest Service built a road along the old railroad grade extending from the airport out to the tilting bridge as part of a larger attempt to attract tourists. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had something to say about it, and this bridge to the other bridge washed away sometime in 2012.

(While we were standing here, another large chunk of the road across the river 

broke off and was swept away.)

At first, we were bummed by this development, since the bridge was the only way to reach Child's Glacier, but Ward did a little research, and the next day we took a two hour hike up to the Sherman Glacier, which was stunning in its own right.

Ward walking along the moraine wall of ice, snow, and silt.

In fact, everywhere you look the land around Cordova is being shaped by water. Whether it is the Copper River Delta with all it's mudflats and braided rivers.

Or the slough, where the dusky Canada Goose subspecies resides along with bald eagles and the moose.

Or the glacial rivers, the color of coffee au lait from all the silt (which doesn't harm the salmon at all - it washes right through their gills).

The Copper River at a particularly wide point

Or finally, the rain forest covering the mountain slopes, with its moss-covered landscape fed by sea fog and rain.

The land is alive with water, with a view bound to please almost everyone. I only wish I had more time to hike around. Given the chance, I would come back in a heartbeat.