Valdez - Part 1

July 17-19: We left Palmer in search of Valdez, AK. Sean & I planned a couple of stops along the way to show his parents some of the beautiful sights.

Along the way, Sean spotted one of the RV channels he watches on YouTube - The Shinpaughs. They are in the rig on the far right with the white truck. 

Sean pointing out the section of road ahead.

Matanuska Glacier.

Lots of frost heaves.

Nelchina Glacier.

More frost heaves, lol.

How we travel with 2 extra people.

Wrangell-St. Elias NP Visitor Center.

Fish weir that many natives use for fishing salmon from the silty glacial rivers.

Main Building. To the right is the Theater Building.

Exum Family addition to the wildlife sightings, lol. I'm sure you can figure out what we put on the white board.

To the left of the buildings, there is a pathway to view the mighty Wrangell-St. Elias Range.

Back on the road!

Beautiful views of the Chugach Mountain Range.

Worthington Glacier

Closer picture of Worthington Glacier.

At the top of Thompson Pass. Beautiful tundra.

Lowe River in the distance.

A short stop at Bridal Veil Fall. We planned to revisit all of this (waterfalls, Worthington glacier, and Thompson pass) on the following day.

Finally, made it to Sean & my favorite town in Alaska. Once settled in to our RV park, we went to explore and find somewhere to eat.

Everyone agreed on eating at The Fat Mermaid and we had a 30 minute wait, so we decided to explore the marina.

Here are the Halibut Derby leaders while we were there.

We got a call that our table was ready and were very surprised to see that we were seated next to the live entertainment!

We all had fun with this!!! LOL!

After finishing our dinner, we had to get a picture with the fat mermaid.

Our after dinner walk included looking at Crooked Creek for bears, but there weren't any today.

We found the jail used in the Valdez Gold Rush Days where they lock up men without beards and allow them to leave only when paying a small fee, lol. Luckily, our beardless guys were safe for the moment because the Gold Rush Days had not yet started.

We went to check out Old Town Valdez, the next morning.

Found an Oystercatcher at the end of the road.

Hard to believe a town was here in the mid 1900's.

Next was Valdez Glacier Lake. This has changed so much in 12 years!!!!

Then, on to Dayville Road to look for bears. Lots of fisher people out trying their hand at catching salmon.

These guys were abundant and loved the fish hatchery.

Harlequin ducks.

Tide is low...

Fish Hatchery Weir

This blocks and limits the amount of salmon that can advance to the spawning grounds. They limit the fish entering the creek due to the hatchery producing so many. There's just not enough room for all of them, so many of them become food for the surrounding wildlife.

Salmon caught in the side of the weir. They don't realize there is no where to go.

This is the creek that the salmon are trying to reach. On the left is the hydroelectric plant outflow.

Eating a picnic lunch on a bench watching the happenings of Dayville Rd.

Our view of the bay.

The farthest a layperson can drive on Dayville Rd. is this point. Beyond this is for those that work for the oil terminal.

We left Dayville Rd and headed up the Richardson Hwy to check out the makings of an old railroad tunnel. Turns out they never actually completed it, so it serves as a good place for visitors to explore.

Next was Worthington Glacier. Our plan was to hike to touch the side of the glacier.

I was trying to find the area I took a picture 12 years ago. This was close. If you want to see a comparison, you can look back in our older blog entries.

A beautiful view of the Chugach Mountains looking away from the glacier.

I chose to take the trail that goes high on the mountain side. This a picture of Sean down by the glacier melt river.

Scott and Tammy!

Sean's picture of their view of the glacier.

My view of the glacier on the higher trail. Turns out the glacier has receded so much that it was no longer easily accessible to reach the side. 

Glacier cave!

Glacier in the background.

Moose in Blueberry Lake. We were here to find wild blueberries. I think we were there a bit too early because the blueberries weren't ripe yet.

We found this shady looking character with a huge drone. He said they were doing "vegetation surveys". We have no idea if that was a real thing or not, lol.

On the way back to Valdez, we were able to stop at Horsetail Falls.

Sean convinced his mom to go kayaking with us on Valdez Glacier Lake. She found a great rental place, Valdez Stay and Play, and Magdalena (red jacket) was very helpful, patient, and kind. 

Sean sticking his hand through part of the iceberg on the right.

A lake full of icebergs... last time we were in this lake, we were able to touch the face of the glacier. Now, a full mile of glacier had broken off and provided endless icebergs to explore!

The sky started to clear up.

It's so interesting to see and feel the icebergs. Some are so smooth and clear, some are the most beautiful blue, and some carry the moraine layers full of rock and silt.

Walking on top of an iceberg. You can see the glacier above Tammy's hat.

Exposing the iceberg's outer layer by pushing back some of the rock. It is such an intense blue. 

Tammy paddling into the cave and we just walked over on top of the iceberg.

This is a good perspective of the size of this part of the iceberg and the cave we all paddled into.

Inside the cave, the walls are so smooth!

We couldn't get over the feel of the walls in the cave, lol!

In the cave looking out.

Sean found a waterfall, so naturally we paddle to it and take a picture with it!

You can see the face of Valdez Glacier above my hat of the left.

Tammy's rental was running out of time, so we made the journey back to the shore after this photo. That included finding our way back through the maze of icebergs, which proved to be interesting. 

We found another cave to explore on the way back!

It was funny on many parts of working our way back to the shore we would encounter shallow areas and occasionally would get stuck and have to shimmy off of them. Tammy had gotten stuck in this area and had to work at getting off of the shallow parts for a while, lol. She did break free! We were literally 50 yards from the shore at this point, which made it funnier. Somehow, we gained two other kayakers following us to find a way out. I bet they were rethinking their decision after a couple of rounds of this, lol!