Getting to Know Valdez

We arrived in Valdez, Alaska on July 30, 2019.  Our RV friends who preceded us had told us great things about this coastal port town, and we were interested to see it on this, our second trip through Alaska.

Valdez is a port of call for cruise ships, and its cruise terminal has some interesting wood-carved sculptures, including this one of a giant octopus enveloping a lighthouse:

We set out to look around Valdez on our first morning's coffee walk on July 31.  Our campground was across from the small boat harbor, and we headed out there to look at the harbor:

The small harbor is a haven for a wide variety of boats:  commercial fishing boats, small sport fishing boats, tour cruise boats and kayaks:

Valdez is surrounded on three sides by high mountain peaks, which give the harbor a picturesque look:

From the far side of the small boat harbor peaks can be seen along the north edge of Valdez Arm:

Walking out the far arm of land protecting the harbor, we could see small fishing boats headed out for their day's sport, with snow-capped mountains in the background:

Valdez is a town of bunnies. Feral rabbits are as common in downtown Valdez as squirrels in other parts of the United States. There is no definitive account of how they got here, but several rumors persist. Some people say they're leftovers from a farm that predates the relocation of the Valdez townsite. Some say they are escaped pets or meat rabbits. One persistent rumor is that a large number of rabbits were intentionally released to entertain tourists during the 1980s. Perhaps there were multiple releases. The rabbit (aka "bunny") population epicenter is downtown. Workers there spend the most time around the bunnies, and they have diverse opinions about them.  But there is no denying that, superficially, they are cute little critters:

Across Valdez Arm from the town is the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery.  Here, pink salmon, when they are ready to swim upstream to spawn, stream through up the fish ladder, through the hatchery, hoping to fulfill their destiny:

The hatchery waits until the salmon are fully ready to spawn.  So, for at least a number of days, the salmon wait at the entrance to the hatchery weir, trying to get upstream to their native waters.  If you have any doubt what a crowd scene this is, watch this video of pink salmon waiting to enter the solomon gulch hatchery weir.  It reminded us of the scenes from Woodstock in 1969.

The local gulls, seals and sea otters take their turn sharing in the superb feast offered by the migrating salmon.  And all this is even before the local bears come down to take their turn to feast on the finny protein:

Having feasted our eyes on pink salmon at the hatchery, we drove up to Valdez Glacier Lake, where we could look across the small icebergs strewn across the lake and imagine them calving from Valdez Glacier.  We decided not to paddle our kayaks up to the glacier for two reasons.  First, it was a very cold day, and the water was frigid, and we weren't interested in fighting off the cold.  Second, on the day we arrived in Valdez, two 60+ year old kayakers and their local guide had been found in the lake.  They had perished when, apparently, they got too close to the glacier when it calved.  Their kayaks presumably swamped, and they were tipped into the icy waters and died of hypothermia.  We decided that was not the adventure for us.  So we satisfied ourselves with this view of the lake:

A closer look into the icebergs showed us some kayakers paddling their way through the ice floes.  We just enjoyed the view:

After Valdez Glacier, we drove up the Richardson Highway to catch a view of Worthington Glacier.  We had hiked up to it the day before, but this was just a drive to find a long-distance view:

After spotting Valdez Glacier, we stopped at Blueberry Lake.  We had originally thought of fishing this lake, but it proved to be too small for a satisfying paddle, and we decided to satisfy ourselves with this scenic view:

It's not well known, but Valdez was the origin of an alternate route up to the goldfields of Chicken and Dawson.  Most famously, Stampeders had climbed up the Chilkoot Trail from Skagway to Carcross and then crossed Bennett Lake to Whitehorse and then on to Dawson along the Yukon River.  But, lesser known, some climbed over the Valdez Glacier from Valdez then followed a trail to Chicken and Eagle, or to Dawson.  This was known as the "Trail of '98" and we had a chance to set our feet upon it north of the Valdez Glacier:

When entrepreneurs struggled to build rail lines up to the goldfields, the two most popular routes were from Valdez, up through the Thompson Pass, and from Cordoba, through Chitina and the Copper River Valley.  Copper was discovered in Kennecott and McCarthy, and the railroad from Cordoba was the successful route.  The rail line up from Valdez was never completed.  However, a few tunnels still exist through Keystone Canyon up toward Thompson Pass.  We found the old railroad tunnels and explored them:

Toward Valdez, at the southern end of Keystone Canyon, through which the Lowe River flows, we saw a number of gorgeous waterfalls, including Bridal Veil Falls:

We returned down the Lowe River to the Valdez Arm, where the abandone townsite of Old Valdez lies.  The residents of Old Valdez relocated to the present site of New Valdez after the 1964 earthquake that so devastated Anchorage and Seward, as well as the port facilities of Old Valdez.  There is nothing left of the old town, and all we saw was an oil tanker waiting to be filled at the Exxon oil terminal:

The 1964 earthquake forever changed the lives of so many people living along the southeast coast of Alaska.  The residents of Valdez succeeded in bouncing back, rebuilding their port and their lives, and thriving on oil pipeline commerce and tourism.  We found the town interesting, colorful and worth a couple of days of exploring before we had to leave.