Valdez, AK

 Valdez July 29th -August 1st

We left Chitina (Chit NA) through the one way rock walls on July 29th and went back over the construction on the Edgerton Highway to the Richardson Highway south to Valdez.

Tight Squeeze 

We thought the ride on the Haines Highway was something to see, but this one was even better. Every time you turned around there was another incredible view. Today we saw a few glaciers along the way including the Worthington Glacier.

Worthington Glacier

Views on Richardson Highway

The Richardson Highway was paved so we had a good ride and we arrived in Valdez mid afternoon where we took a site at a campground on the harbor where we stayed for 3 nights. We treated ourselves here with full hookups-electricity, water and sewer! We haven't done that for the majority of the trip..it was time.

We thought we might do a kayak trip to a glacier, but the weather was raw and I had a bad cold so we opted to be content with touring Valdez, the harbor, the Valdez Glacier, the  museum and the Solomon Gultch Hatchery.






The Chugach Mountains surround Valdez and are the highest coastal mountain range in all of North America. The views are outstanding!

Small Boat Harbor

Valdez Harbor with Chugach Mountain Range

The original town of Valdez suffered a tsunami after a quake in the mid 60s where 30 people on the dock were killed and a few on one of the boats. The ground under the town was deemed unstable so they moved it to its current location. The current population is 4000 and its industry is fishing and tourism. The Alaskan Pipeline starts in Prudhoe Bay and terminates here in Valdez. Valdez is also noteworthy for the largest oil spill in our waters in 1989. It is also noted for its winter sports including the Extreme Skiing Championships from 1990 to 2000. Their record snowfall in 1990 was 46 feet and last year there was an avalanche on Richardson Highway which shut the town down for days. We're sure glad it's not snowing now..

One of our favorite places was the hatchery watching the salmon trying to go up the river to spawn. However, the weir was set so they would go into the hatchery where their eggs would be harvested. Valdez Fisheries Development Association, organized in 1978 is one of the most advanced in Alaska.Their goal is to produce 10 Million Pink, 300,000 chum, 100,000 silver and 10,000 king per year.  These fish are caught by both commercial and sport fishermen and are part of the great source of food for Alaskans and the world.  Each returning female that spawns yields about 1,700 eggs.  To see the frenzy of fish activity at the weir and  the sea lions, sea gulls, eagles and fisherman at the shore is a sight to behold.  However, the old sow grizzly bear that is usually there did not appear while we were there.
Tim fished at the shore there and snagged many salmon but only kept the two.

Valdez Glacier

Salmon trying to get upstream

Sea Lion with Fish

Whispering Giant

In 1981, a very well known wood carver, Peter "Wolf" Toff,  produced a 30 foot high Indian statue weighing 85,000 pounds in 1981 to honor the Native American spirit of this Alaskan  Village. It is prominently displayed on the downtown green,  He has produced over seventy of these nationwide and has one in every state and has named them the Whispering Giants.

Pampered enough for three nights, we spent our last night in Valdez at a roadside turnout as we have to get up at 5:00 am to be in the ferry queue for a 7:00 am sail to Whittier.