Richardson Highway

We continued our afternoon by driving north on the Richardson Highway. We stopped several times to enjoy the views. One roadside stop near Glennallen offered wonderful views of a trio of impressive mountains. Mount Drum, Mount Sanford, and Mount Wrangell, were all glowing in the afternoon sun. A calm day allowed some dramatic mountain reflections in the nearby lake.

 Mount Drum, a stratovolcano or composite volcano, has many layers of hardened lava and eruptions forming its steep profile.

 It looked rather imposing in the distance even though its last volcanic activity was some 240,000 years ago! Mt. Drum's elevation is 12,010 feet high.

Located to the east is Mount Sanford, a shield volcano.

Supposedly, they look like a warrior's shield when viewed from above. These types of volcanoes are wide and are formed when lava flows instead of exploding from them. Mount Sanford is 16,237 feet in elevation. The last eruption here was about 300,000 years ago.

 A bit further east is another shield volcano, Mount Wrangell.

 Rising 14,163 feet in elevation, this mountain looks really wide and expansive. Of the three, this is the one with the most recent volcanic activity. Mt. Wrangell experienced an eruption in the mid 1880s or so. We stayed for a bit before wandering on to our home for the night.