Valdez, Alaska: Ho Hum, Another Glacier

On the Glenn Highway to Valdez

The drive over to Valdez from Anchorage was a spectacular 300-mile trip.  We went up through a river valley along a winding road that limited us to 35 mph.  Then we got up on top and had smooth sailing.  

We got to see the four-mile-wide Matanuska Glacier (left), then high plains with short stubby Black Spruce.  This is the Glenn Highway, known as one of America's premier roads for scenery.

If it hadn't been, we might have opted to take a ferry from Whittier over to Valdez.  We weren't disappointed.  The scenery was as advertised.  Then we got to the road construction where they coat your vehicle with something akin to Portland cement.  But by then we were staring at a set of mountains that would knock your sox off.

Mt. Stanford, Mt. Wrangell and Mt Blackburn rose up before us.  Then at Glenallen, we turned south on Richardson Highway and started down through the Wrangell-Mt. Elias National Park and Preserve where those mountains live.  If you've never heard of this park you aren't alone.  Me neither. It's big.  How big?  It has one glacier that is bigger than the state of Rhode Island and a mountain range that is bigger than the state of Connecticut.  The whole park is bigger than Switzerland and has higher mountains.  That big.

After a few more hours we came to Worthington Glacier (above), just before the high Thompson Pass.  High here means about half the altitude of Green Valley. We finally slid down the hill into Valdez.  Except it wasn't where we expected to find it.  The mile markers have you arriving about four miles before you actually get here. The town moved. More on that later.

This is Valdez

Then we drove down into Valdez, which we had expected to be a quaint village like Seward.  It wasn't.  It was more like Whittier, but with a subdivision and a Safeways.  What they have most of all is RVs.  There are RVs everywhere.  We are in a park with wall-to-wall RVs.  The other parks are the same. Valdez also has lots of boats. And even more mountains.

Valdez is also the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline.  It runs down from Prudhoe Bay, way up on the Arctic Ocean, and brings all that oil here to get loaded into ships for shipment everywhere.  When you think of Valdez, what comes to your mind first may be Exxon Valdez, the ship that loaded up here then ran aground 45 miles down the Prince William Sound.  It spilled about 10 million gallons of crude, kicking off a terrible environment disaster.  For the record, we found not a single Exxon station in Valdez. 

But as in Seward, the primary reason for Valdez seems to be fish.  The big surge right now is in Pink salmon, also known as Humpies.  They are everywhere.  Leaping out of the water (below) and trying to crowd their way into the fish hatchery on the far side of the bay over by the pipeline terminus. 

We found thousands of pinks trying to find their way to the place of their birth to spawn.  Since they originated at the hatchery (below), that's where they were trying to return. Those ripples in the water below are fish!

Many succeeded.  But thousands of others died on the mud flats as the dropping tide left them high and dry. The gulls and bears were delighted. One night we saw a black bear and three cubs come to the hatchery to fish.  

Momma bear pulled a salmon out of the water and set it on a rock for the cubs.  One of them put a foot on it, and squirted out a million eggs (below).  That’s the treat they were seeking.  The carcass was left to the hundred of gulls milling about.

We also found bears at a creek right in town (below).  A brown, black bear with cubs, and a younger black bear came out periodically to scoop fish out of the small creek. We saw them just about daily.

The dark smudges behind her at lower left are cubs

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One day we drove up Mineral Creek, crossing a very old and rickety looking iron bridge.  Then we went six miles up a dirt road that had lots of waterfalls and glaciers. 

The part at right was better than a car wash.

We also found the Valdez Glacier where would-be miners in 1898 were tricked into trying to hike the glacier to get to Dawson during the gold rush.  Bad idea. Many died.  We found huge blocks of ice floating down a large lake at the foot of the glacier (left).  



Many years ago, the Army decided to run a telegraph wire up across that same glacier and gave the job to a young Signal Corps lieutenant.  There is a mountain nearby named for him:  Mt. Billy Mitchell.  

Yup, the same guy.  Before he learned to fly, he was into wires.

Old Valdez vs New Valdez

I mentioned earlier the discrepancy between the mile markers and where Valdez is actually located.  On Good Friday, 1964, a 9.2-magnitude (huge) earthquake struck only a few miles from Valdez. The quake triggered a subsurface landslide, which took with it the town's long spit and dock and caused a tsunami. Twenty eight people on the dock to greet the supply freighter were carried away, and several longshoremen were crushed in the ship's hold. The backwash from the tidal wave then swept into town, which by then had dropped about five feet in elevation. The people and government later got together and decided the whole town needed to be moved. 

Houses and other buildings were hauled to the new site, and those left behind were burned.  Not much remains today except a few pilings from the old wharf where so many died.

The town of Tombstone, Arizona, calls itself the “Town To Tough To Die.”  

Compared to Valdez, they they are pansies.

What To Do In Valdez On Rainy Days

You can go to the two museums.  I found this really big gun at one of them.  Back in Show Low I had been worried that I couldn't bring a big enough gun on the trip, because Canada might not let me in.  I found a rifle in one museum here that appears to be just about the right size for protection against bears.  But the bears are so busy eating fish right now they seem to have no interest in eating us.

This is the fish I couldn't land back in Portage.  It gets bigger all the time.

The only bad part about our visit here was the rain and cold. I didn’t get to fish, and there isn’t a whole lot here to do after we visited the museums and Ernesto’s Mexican diner. Ok, in fairness they do glacier tours.  We did that in Seward.  And today is the start of the ladies Silver Salmon Derby.  You can fish, you just need a boat and a really big umbrella. 

 I decided today we shouldn't drive the passes of Richardson Highway in the heavy rain. So we are just sitting in the motorhome listening to the rain pounding on the roof. Tomorrow we will head north, back to Glenallen, then make a right turn onto the Tok Cutoff which will take us back to the town where we first arrived in Alaska from the Yukon back in June.  At that point we will start down the Alcan Highway to Whitehorse, then on to Carcross where we will park the motor home long enough to drive down to Skagway.  We may also take a ride on the White Pass Railway and will look at Dyea where my grandfather started his trek up to the Chilkoot Pass.

So stay tuned.  There is still a lot of Alaska and Canada left to explore.

John and Marsha

(All photos copyright 2013 John and Marsha Taylor)