Alaskan RV Adventure: Valdez

14 July - Headed to Valdez

After enjoying the breakfast special at the Grand View RV Park café we were back on the road again and headed to Valdez. The road from Glenallen to Valdez took us by the Wrangell-St. Elias national park where we stopped at the visitor's and cultural center. Among other native things on display, they had an interesting fishing wheel on display like one we'd seen in a movie earlier.

Fishing wheel

Back on the road to Valdez we begin to get into some really beautiful (and very tall) mountains that require many stops to admire. One of these stops was at the Worthington Glacier which is close to the road and we take the short walk there to view it. Ed and Kay remarked that this glacier had receded significantly since their visit here 10 years ago.

Worthington Glacier

We then traveled over the Thompson Pass which is the location in the US that receives the most annual snowfall....500 inches per year average and it holds the record for the most single day snowfall at 62 inches. It was downhill to Valdez from there and on our final approach into Valdez we went thru the Keystone Canyon where waterfalls were plentiful.

First order of business in Valdez is dinner and laundry. Mexican....whaaaat? Yep, we had Mexican and as you might expect we were not impressed but we left there full and the beer wasn't bad. Finding a laundromat ended up being harder than expected but we did manage to get the laundry done.

It's now 9:00'ish P.M. and since it's still light outside and we are curious to look around we drive over to the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery.....what a treat. They raise pink and Coho Salmon and the pink salmon are making their annual trek.....coming back home to spawn and die....wow, an amazing sight. The fish were thick in the water and there were sea lions, sea gulls and eagles. The sea lions were quite entertaining, making guttural noises, playing and eating Salmon. When they would snag a fish they'd surface with it in their mouth and shaking their heads and the sea gulls would flock to them going crazy...quite an entertaining scene.

Pink Salmon were thick

Dinner

     We'd heard that there were some bears that frequent the stream to enjoy some Salmon so I decided I would try that spot a couple more times while here. With all the fish there, Ed and I can't understand why every bear for miles isn't there.

15 July - Full Day in Valdez

     Ed and I went back to the hatchery early in the morning hoping to see some bears feeding and giving the girls time to sleep in. We didn't bother to check the tide table and didn't realize what a different view we'd get of that scene at low tide. The fish (salmon) were still there but the water was so low that the sea lions were not. On the now dry land there were many eagles and sea gulls eating the fish pieces left there.

     Back at the trailers and since we have a cruise scheduled for Saturday we make our way to the LuLu Belle office to pay for our cruise. After lunch we do a self guided tour of the Old Town Valdez, visit a glacier lake that has huge ice chunks floating in it, and then visit the Valdez Museum.....all were good. The town of Valdez was destroyed during the 1964 earthquake and had to be moved to it's current location.

Glacier lake

All the talk about earthquakes and Kathy woke up this morning asking if any of us felt what she thought was an earthquake around midnight.....we all laughed and said no. While we were in the Valdez museum she asked the lady working there and she confirmed that there was a 1.8 magnitude quake at 11:59 last night.

At the camp this evening there was a community fire that I decided to go sit around, drink a beer and chat with the others. Just when I was about to leave (almost 11:00 P.M. and still light out), a fellow camper pulled out a ukulele and began to play and sing. He was quite good and entertaining so I was in for another hour and a half.

16 July - Glacier Cruise

We had our first flat tire casualty this morning....Ed woke to find a tire going flat on his truck. After putting the spare on we learned just how small a town we were in....on Saturday there was not a place open to fix a flat tire. Since our departure tomorrow is Sunday, we opt to head out without a spare to the next place to get a tire fixed....100 miles away.

Our Glacier/Wildlife cruise boarded at 10:45 on the LuLu Belle out of Valdez. When we bought tickets the day before we learned that Fred was the captain of the boat but his wife, who runs the ticket office, said SHE was the admiral. They have lived on the boat for 38 years. They spend summers in Valdez and winters in Port Angeles, Washington.

LuLu Belle heading out of Valdez port

As we depart the harbor Captain Fred begins what will be a great narrative all day of what we see. First up was several otters floating on their backs just out in front of the Alaska Pipeline terminal....a testimony of the recovery since the 1989 oil spill. On the cruise he also points out the site where Exxon Valdez ran aground.

Otters in the harbor

On the way out we pass an area where several fishing boats were anchored as they wait for their spot in the port and we see a few young boys (fishing crewmen) jumping from their boat swimming.....and the water temp is between 38 and 42 degrees. We could not believe it because the air was cool.

Valdez Polar Bear Club

Throughout the course of the day we see many animals, eagles, otters, sea lions, doll porpoise, humpback whales, and puffins. The captain showed off his boat handling skills all day but especially at one point when he put the bow of the boat into a cave for us to see puffins that live in the rocks.

Open wide

Prince William Sound Humpback

Puffin

The highlight (and a cold one), in addition to the overall scenery, was getting to within a quarter mile of the Columbia Glacier.....an amazing site. We had to navigate around icebergs at a very slow speed and when we turned the engines off we heard a loud noise that almost sounded like the "crack" sound of lightning to me and saw a large piece of ice calving from the glacier. We stayed parked there for 30-45 minutes enjoying the scene and taking photos. All in all a great day and experience!

Columbia Glacier Pano

Returning to the dock around 8:00 P.M. - hungry, and luckily our tickets were good for a 10% discount at a couple of the waterfront restaurants so we head on over to Mike's Palace for a great meal and a couple beers.
We got very tickled in the restaurant, here's the scene;
Kay makes a trip to the lady's room first and Kathy said she too was gonna go before dinner. To that Kay says - "let me know what you think of it with a wry smile". At that point our curiosity was piqued. Kathy returns laughing telling us the toilet had four buttons - front, back, dry and stop. At this point we are really laughing and trying to get one of them to admit to what they actually did. Best I could do was get Kathy to go back in and take photos so we could verify the story and everyone could enjoy it.

Sorry, but didn't think you'd believe us :-)

Back at the camper after dinner, almost 10:00 but still pretty light out, Ed and I decide that we want to give the bears one more try over near the hatchery. This is our last shot as we are leaving the Valdez area in the morning. We hit the jackpot this time, we saw a mother grizzly bear and her three cubs (likely two year old cub's we were told) making their way out of the woods and slowly moving towards the hatchery. A perfect ending to the day.