RV Squid: The Car Launch

July 4, 2024

When planning our trip to Alaska, Harold, who is usually rather laid back, insisted on only one thing - the Glacier View Car Launch. I could plan the trip however I liked as long as we were in Glacier View on July 4th for the car launch.

We had called Arnie Hrncir, the organizer, in regards to the first come, first serve dry camping. He recommended that we arrive on the 2nd in order to secure a camping spot. So we did. Unbeknownst to us, there were about 10 full hook up sites. A bit surprised the spots weren't reserved for car launch sponsors or the myriads of videographers, tv channels, and Youtube channel personnel, we signed up immediately. Yours truly was doing the happy dance for sure. By the afternoon of the 3rd, dry camping was full except for tents.

The rest of that day and July 3rd were spent people watching, checking out the cliff, and watching the cars being prepped. For some reason, the pink Barbie Corvette required several fast takeoffs, spinouts, and speed trials.

We had heard that you had better stake out your spot early. The admission gates opened at 8:00 a.m. for the 2:00 p.m. start. Campers had early access. We had our chairs in place by 8:30 a.m, barely managing to snag front row seats, that later became third and fourth row seats as people moved ever closer to the pond and bottom of the hill, despite the rope barriers to prevent that. I thought we were plenty close, almost too close as occasional car parts came flying, not to mention the dust and fumes.

They launched around 30 cars. We quickly lost track, stopped taking photos and videos, and just watched the spectacle unfolding before us. It is truly a unique event. It's craziness. It's also something around which you plan for your trip to Alaska.

The next day the crew, largely family and friends, were busy cleaning up. We walked down that steep hill around lunch time and were surprised to see how much had been cleaned up. Most of the wrecked cars were ready to be loaded onto flatbed trucks. Besides staff, the only folks down there were the Gearshift Garage folks looking for their Go Pro camera from their car that made it to the pond.

It's questionable whether the event will be held much longer. The riverbed has changed course and the viewing area has lost a lot of square footage over the years. It's a wait and see game.

We took too many photos and only one short video. If you want to see better video, we encourage you to watch the video produced by 1320video on their YouTube channel. Plenty of videos out there from Gearshift Garage, and VINwiki among others.