Valdez

7/28 – 7/30/2016 – As we have learned on this trip through Alaska every road, every city, every day the sights that you find around every corner never stop amazing you.  We thought that the ride to Homer was amazing until we ventured from Anchorage to Glennallen to Valdez; the 300 mile journey was one spectacular sight from start to finish.  The massive glaciers, lush valleys, momentous peaks and winding rivers dazzled the senses around each bend and over each hill.  We arrived in Valdez and checked into the Valdez Glacier Campground and were greeted with yet another glacier, a beautiful waterfall, and an active eagle nest just across the road from our campsite.  Our first day in Valdez we drove around to see the sights of the beautiful downtown and harbor on Prince William Sound with magnificent views of Chugach Mountains and Alaska Range.  We also visited the Solomon Fish Hatchery which was a sight like we have never seen.  The salmon returning to their birthplace at the hatchery after two years were literally climbing over each other to reach the fish ladder to spawn and die.  The determination of these creatures is really beyond comprehension and typifies the miracle that is nature. 

 

 

Day two in Valdez was spent on a 7 hr cruise to Columbia Glacier, and no we didn’t get shipwrecked.  Columbia Glacier is the second largest tidewater glacier in North America and the largest in Prince William Sound.  The journey to the glacier was filled with sightings of sea otters, sea lions, puffins and porpoises, and orca whales.  The only thing missing was the allusive humpback whale, but the sight of the calving glacier watching huge chunks of ice fall into the ocean as the captain maneuvered through the ice burgs made the long journey worth the trip.

 

 

 

The journey from Valdez to Tok on day three was an amazing ride as the clear blue sky revealed glaciers, waterfalls, towering mountains and incredible scenery.  Proclaimed as one of “America’s Most Scenic Rides, it began with the Keystone Canyon a place of magnificent geology, a raging river, and cascading Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail falls. At Thompson Pass, just off the highway was the immense Worthington Glacier which is one of the most accessible glaciers in Alaska.  As we drove on, we were treated with the best view yet of two of the highest gems of the Wrangell – St Elias National park, majestic Mt Wrangell at over 14,000 feet and Mt Sanford at 16,000 feet plus pushing through the clouds.  It was a bitter sweet journey as we were leaving Alaska after two glorious months of amazing sights the likes we had never seen, great times on the Kenai River doing something we never expected, seeing wildlife in their natural environments and just being amazed around every bend and over every hill.  We still have two Alaskan cities to visit (Skagway and Hyder) which can only be accessed through British Columbia by road, but this was our last day in the final frontier and it exceeded our expectations in every way.  Goodbye Alaska until we return, and we will, thanks for the memories.