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Published: July 31st 2007
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Day 16 July 29 Traveled about 130 miles to Valdez, Sea Otter RV Park
We started the day with a good breakfast at the Caribou Lodge in Glennallen; one of Karen and Gary’s favorite places. We stopped at the Wrangell St. Elias National Park Visitors Center. This is a new and very nice visitors center. This is the largest National Park in the US. It’s 6 times larger than Yellowstone. It has 6 of the 10 tallest mountains in the US. It is very remote with only 2 roads that penetrate the park a short distance. We will probably visit the park later in our journey. We stopped at Copper Center, an old mining area, and visited the Museum. We also checked out the Klutina River to see if the red salmon were running. We decided that the current was too strong to fish there, so headed down the Richardson Highway towards Valdez. This was probably one of the more scenic drives we have taken. The mountains are big and you get very close to them. We also stopped at the Worthington Glacier. The glacier has retreated since we visited it 15 years ago. GLOBAL WARMING! It was about
80 degrees at Copper Center, but when we got close to the coast it was in the low 50s. At Valdez we watched the fishing charter boats return and clean their catches. We talked to the captain of the boat that looked like it had the most halibut. He just happened to have 2 openings on the next day’s charter so Al and I signed on.
Wildlife count - Only a few ground squirrels (We did see some beautiful water falls)
Day 17 July 30 Traveled 170 miles (by boat) Still at Sea Otter RV Park in Valdez
Up early to meet Captain Mel Grove at has boat the “Halibut Grove”. We were joined by 4 other guys; 2 from Oregon, 1 from Iowa and 1 from Alaska. We left Valdez on the boat at 6:30AM and traveled almost 3 hours and 85 miles to the fishing hole. The action was slower than usual. Big Al and I caught 1 keeper halibut each. We did catch a number of sharks. They were not great whites, but not so great brown dog sharks that kept stealing our bait. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t catch
any fish to enter into the local halibut derby. The biggest halibut this season was a whopping 340 pounds. At least we have enough halibut so we won’t go hungry for a few days. One of the high points of the fishing charter was the wildlife.
Wildlife count - 6 humpback whales, 3 porpoise, 3 Orca (killer whales), 4 sea otters, too few halibut and too many dog sharks.
Day 18 July 31 Traveled 30 miles Still at Sea Otter RV Park in Valdez
We woke up to thick fog, drizzle and 50 degrees. We hear it is in the 90s back in the midwest. Drove to Alison point to do some pink salmon fishing. There is a fish hatchery on the point where they release baby salmon. After about 2 years they come back to spawn, but there is no river to spawn in; only commercial and sport fisher men and women waiting to catch them. We each caught and released about 20 over a 2 hour period. We have plenty of halibut to eat so didn’t keep any of these salmon. They are not the best type of salmon to freeze. They say they
are great smoked, but we didn’t bring a smoke house with us. We also drove to see Valdez glacier, but it was too foggy to see any thing. This is the longest we have stayed at any one place since we started this trip. We both like the Valdez area. There are many fishing opportunities in the area and it is not over run with tourists.
Wildlife count - 2 seals, 2 sea otters and 2 elderly ladies looking for bears when they spotted us.
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Karen S
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Don't stay too long in Valdazeeze!
Glad you got to go out on Prince William Sound and see a lot of marine life. Those pinks can be fun to catch but wish the silvers would start running. Next trip if you don't run into any this time. If you stay at Tolsona Wilderness campground again say hi to Graham and MaryAnn for us. We taught with them for many years. Though we didn't frequent Grandma Ole's I know Gary taught her boys. Did you see she also sells office supplies? You've had the pleasure to meet some of the Glennallen characters!