Blogs from Valdez, Alaska, United States, North America

July 20, 2011 VALDEZ, AK OH MY WORD WHAT AN AWESOME DAY!! Today we woke to clear blue skies and sunshine, a PERFECT day for the 9 hour boat cruise of the majestic waters of Prince William Sound to visit both the Columbia and Meares Glaciers and view lots of the wildlife on the way. We boarded our cruise ship at 9:30 a.m., just a short walk from our RV campground. The trip included lunch and a soup snack later in the afternoon. Once again the vastness of this country and its majestic beauty just left us speechless. Even the camera could not do it justice, but we tried so we could share this wonderful experience with you. We were not able to capture all of the wildlife we saw along the way simply because they ... read more

July 18, 2011 TOK TO VALDEZ Today was the second longest travel day since we left home – 414 Km. Clouds hung low over the mountains so we were unable to see the panoramic views of the peaks in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. At times we passed through heavy rain and again the road had some very rough spots. We picked up three pretty good sized rock chips in the windshield on this road today. We had a very good view of the Worthington Glacier because the highway passed very close to it on our descent into Valdez. The harbor at Valdez is the only harbor in Alaska that does not freeze over in the winter. It is for that reason the Alaskan pipeline ended in Valdez. National attention was focused on Valdez and the ... read more

On Sunday, the Johnsons and Mike and Jack left to head over to Palmer and Anchorage while we stayed in Valdez. We walked around town, heading out to the Crooked Creek Salmon Viewing area, but the pink salmon had not arrived yet. That seems to be the story on this trip – we either arrive a week late or a week early. How many times we have heard, “Oh, there were so many bears here just last week.” OR “Last week, there was a family of about 7 otters just playing on our beach right here.” Oh well, there’s still a lot of Alaska to cover. We walked over to the Alaska Marine Highway Terminal to book a ferry ride from Valdez to Whittier on Wed. That evening, we walked down to the docks to watch ... read more

Friday, left Tok to head for Valdez, home of two disastrous events that both happened on Good Friday in two different years: the earthquake registering 9.2 on the Richter scale lasting over 4 minutes struck March 27, 1964, the oil spill, worst in North American history (until last year in the Gulf), spilling more than 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound occurred March 24, 1989. Our original plans did not include coming to Valdez, but we are so glad we did. The pipeline is visible at places along the route southward, but really quite inconspicuous. The port and pipeline terminus are about 10 miles from downtown Valdez, so the town is still charming. After the earthquake, the old town of Valdez was condemned as it was built on unstable ground. So, a new ... read more

Sept 2nd, Thursday must be Valdez, AK Dick was so excited last night because he planned to go on another 6.5-hour glacial cruise for today. I thought it would be nice but had absolutely no idea that it would be fantastic. This cruise was to the Columbia Glacier plus looking out for the marvelous AK animals. We saw numerous rafts of otters, which are pretty shy animals. Just learned today they rock back and forth on the water to make air pockets, which help them float. Then we saw Steller sea lions. Looking at the pictures, you will be surprised that these are young sea lions, and have been left behind by their parents. The adults are already in the really cold waters now. These “little” guys are taking naps and gaining weight and fat before ... read more