Our destination is the city of Valdez, on the shores of Prince William Sound. To get there, we must travel to the southern tip of the Richardson Highway. So we put in $3.66/gallon gas at Glennallen and picked up a few groceries at the Safeway. Prices at the store were two to three times what we are used paying in the lower 48. We saw $4 avocadoes and $5 for a PINT of ice cream. We're going to have to quit our nightly ice cream parties at these prices! Turning south, we were soon surrounded by beautiful mountains.
The forecast was for rain today, and clouds shrouded the tops of many of the mountains and glaciers we were passing today.
We stopped in at the Worthington Glacier State Recreation Area. The Milepost says that this is the most visited site in the Copper River Basin corner of the state, and it's also a National Natural Landmark. Today the area was empty, and we took a single picture of the famous glacier in the rain.
As we approached the highest point on the Richardson Highway--Thompson Pass--the walls of snow along the highway got deeper and deeper. It hard to tell, but the picture below is of the snow bank that was as tall as our motor home as we drove by. More snow falls here than any other place in Alaska. This pass holds the record for the most snow--298 inches--to ever fall in a month. That was the winter of 1952-53 when they got 974 inches of snow total.
As we ascended Thompson Pass, we were engulfed by fog. We couldn't even read the passing sign, much less see all the beautiful views just outside our windows.
We passed many waterfalls beside the road as the winter snow melt is running down the mountains. We were glad the fog cleared as we drove to lower elevations. That's because we had plans to visit two famous waterfalls today as we drove through Keystone Canyon. The first was Bridal Veil Falls, and with a name like that it was obvious that the two women should pose with it.
The other was Horsetail Falls. With a name like that, it was obvious that the two men should pose with it.
Our plan was to boondock near Valdez Glacier Lake. We had read that the parking areas were open for over-nighters here, but new signs were posted that no camping was allowed. So we took a quick picture of this iceberg-filled lake in the rain and headed down the road.
We called all the RV parks in Valdez, and got rates from $40-$54 for a one-night full-hook-up site. We finally landed a few miles down the road where we paid $25 for a site with no hook-ups at Valdez Glacier Campground. But they did have good warm showers and a dump station, two things we would need.
We made a good dinner, had four hot showers, and when the rain subsided a little, we took a walk around our campground. We had our own waterfall flowing off the back mountain wall of our campground. We went to bed knowing that the weather was supposed to be great tomorrow.
And it was! We were up early because Connie and Steven had to be at the Lu-lu-Belle boat office at 10:30 for their seven-hour cruise. When making that reservation, we found out that the Valdez Chamber of Commerce was offering $50 vouchers for each tourist, to be used at participating businesses in town. So their $150 per person cruises suddenly became $100 cruises! We already liked Valdez a lot by the time we actually drove under the sign at the edge of town.
All four of us printed our $50 vouchers at the chamber office, and Connie and Steven were off for adventures on Prince Edward Sound for the rest of the day. Denisa and Mark have already had their Alaskan cruise in Seward, so we are staying on land today. Our first stop was the small harbor walk, where a two-day fishing charter was bringing in six people's two-day fish limit. The professional filleters had already began their work on their fish. This guy has done this for 25 years!
All that experience is probably why he made it look so easy!
The six fishermen make the trip to Alaska at least once every summer. They all take home around 100 pounds of halibut and yellow-eye rockfish. At around $30 per pound retail, they figure the meat they take home will pay for their air fare, lodging, and boat charter. At least that's what they tell their wives! When Denisa asked if she could take a picture of their stack of fish heads, they quickly agreed.
Then they insisted she hold one for a picture. This is a record-size yellow-eye rockfish. The boat captain estimated that it was 100 years old.
The fishermen then insisted that we needed a picture with a halibut too. So they handed Denisa one of the smaller fish. She found that the proper way to hold one of these fish is with your hand inside it.
We watched and visited with the fishermen as their pile of fish steaks continued to grow. That's an expensive wheelbarrow of fish!
It's a beautiful day with almost no wind. The water in the harbor was as still as glass this morning.
Our next stop was shopping for a kayak trip. We did our research and checked prices and locations. We'll report on what we found tomorrow when we go kayaking. Then we drove out of town for our hike for the day. Valdez has many options, but we finally chose the Solomon Gulch "John Hunter Memorial" trail. It starts almost at the end of Dayville Road, with views across the bay back to the town of Valdez.
As we started on this very steep trail, we met a group of people coming down. When we asked them about the hike ahead of us, we got comments like, "not natural" on a "wide road trail" to a "man-made lake." We could tell that they wouldn't recommend this hike, but we were already started, and we decided not to turn around.
We got to this particularly "not natural" spot where the water pipes (made from leftover Alaska pipeline pipe) ran over or heads toward the hydroelectric plant near the bay.
We saw warning signs and electric lines. They were right, this was not a very scenic hike so far.
Just then, we met a couple coming down the steep side spur trail to the view point. They stopped to tell us they saw a black bear at the top.
Shouldn't we turn around? Absolutely not, as Mark headed straight up, keeping watch on the left side of the trail where they just saw the bear.
But when we saw movement on the right, we stopped. Is that black sliver of color the back of a bear?
We watched as a good-sized black bear stepped out of the bushes just 30 yards in front of us.
We were glad to have the warning! We stayed close together, and talked to him as we continued to take pictures.
Mark is taking video while Denisa is clicking pictures with her cell phone. She was sure missing our good phone right now! But the good news is he was so close that even the cell phone could take a decent picture.
He scampered across the ridge right in front of us. No zoom needed for these pictures!
He stopped on the edge of the clearing to look us over . . .
and then headed into the brush on our left. What a treat! Mark's opinion of this hike just went way up!
We did go to the top of the viewpoint for a picture of the Valdez harbor from above. After all, we had climbed up this spur road to get this view. We just happened to get our best Alaska bear view as well!
The trip on to Solomon Lake was uneventful, until we looked back to see the bear coming off the view point spur trail. No pictures this time as he headed back into the brush too fast. Our only picture on the rest of the hike to the lake was of a nice waterfall beside the trail.
Denisa is always taking pictures of flowers, so she had to stop and take these large "blooms" that love the boggy soil on this trail.
The clouds were lifting as we arrived for some great views of the icy Solomon Lake.
The couple that had warned us about the bear was still at the lake. So we showed them our pictures and started a 30-minute conversation. Owen and Diana are working in Fairbank and are exploring Alaska on their weekend vacations. We took pictures of our newest "trail angels"--their term, not ours. We meet some of the nicest people in our wanderings!
We took pictures of the two of them together in front of the lake, and learned some good camera tips from him. We told them about the $50 vouchers available for visitors, and we soon became fast friends.
We have certainly wandered to one of God's wonders today!
We walked further around Solomon Lake for some views at a different angle. This might be a "man-made lake," but it was beautiful!
The trip back to the car was less dramatic, but still with nice mountain views.
It's hard to take a picture that shows how steep this trail really is. But with 700 foot elevation gain in just two miles, it certainly felt steep.
We've heard from the locals that this is the first nice weather day they've had in a week. They have had constant rain here, and we still see the puddles left on the trail. At first glance, we thought this is a curious-looking puddle.
It was reflecting the snow-topped mountains above it!
After the hike that certainly turned out better than we had hoped, we drove to the end of Dayville Road. It is closed to traffic because this is the Valdez terminus of the Alaska pipeline.
It also has an outhouse, that joins our list of "best outhouse views."
Even with snow on the trail today, the spring flowers are trying to bloom.
Our last stop on Dayville Road is the Solomon Gulch Hatchery. The large blue building is idle right now, but they are gearing up for the salmon runs that should be starting very soon. We spoke with two workers that were cleaning out the chutes that will bring the spawning fish into the hatchery. They have an automated self-guided tour, with videos that describe what they do here.
We've heard that this is a great place to watch the fish, and all the animals that like the fish. The sea gulls are already lined up on the rail, but we've heard that the bears will be here as soon as they hear that the salmon have arrived.
After finalizing kayak plans, we headed back to the harbor to pick up Connie and Steven. They took some great pictures and we'll share one of those. They managed to get not just one, but TWO humpback whales in the same picture--the tail of one diving on the left, and the back of another on the right. They were having a great cruise on this beautiful day!
The 80-year-old Captain of the Lu-Lu Belle has the philosophy that they will stay on the water as long as they are finding interesting things to see. So they were almost an hour later than they had planned. That gave us time to walk along the harbor and watch more fishermen come in with their halibut catch of the day.
The captain from the next boat concentrated on rockfish, instead of halibut. These fish aren't as impressive in size, and this fish charter went to a totally different spot than the halibut charters.
We also had time to explore the boat yards next to the harbor. Boats of all sizes were up on blocks, getting new paint jobs or doing engine work.
When they are ready to go back in the water, this over-sized lift will launch them back into salt water.
We have certainly been blessed with glorious weather in Valdez today!
We took this picture of the mountains behind the harbor. These are the same mountains that we were hiking in this afternoon.
Because Connie and Steven's 7-hour cruise was stretched into an 8-hour ride, we also had time to hike the one-mile Dock Point trail.
This little peninsula is in the area where we will be kayaking tomorrow.
Then we had our first Alaska dining out this week. This was dinner at The Potato, recommended to us by some fellow hikers last week.
The town of Valdez was moved to its present location after the earthquake of 1964 destroyed Old Valdez. That is where we are headed this evening--to a boondocking spot right on the bay that our kayak company recommended.
With views of the mountains on three sides and the bay on the other, it was a beautiful free site to camp.
As the sun began to set below the mountains, Denisa liked the evening colors reflected in the pond beside us.
The animal count for us was small today--2 snowshoe hares and one bear. But we are glad we are staying another night in our new favorite Alaska town--Valdez!
No comments:
Post a Comment