We stopped for lunch at a pond where these 2 swans were nesting.
Since we were not in a hurry, we also stopped at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. It is the largest of the national parks--it stretches southeast for 250 miles. We walked the short interpretive trail behind the visitor center.
We took quite a few rest stops. This one had a trail to walk to overlook the river.
Rest stops were necessary as the road had many frost heaves--Bob or I would yell yahoo or yippee-yi when we hit a big one as we flew up in the air.As we neared Valdez, we stopped to see Devil's Elbow. The water rushes through a narrow chasm, goes under a bridge, then makes a 90 degree turn!
Here is our rv parked near Devil's Elbow. Notice our 'new' step!
Not much farther down the road, we saw Worthington Glacier for the first time. It is retreating now, but it is still massive.
Here is another view of the glacier.
As we drove through Keystone Canyon, we got a look at Bridal Veil Falls (how many falls have that name?)....
....and Horsetail Falls. In the winter people come from all over the world for ice climbing adventures on these falls.
We decided to stay at the military campground run by Ft. Greeley. It is also open to the public for different rates. After setting up at Valdez Glacier View CG, then we drove around Valdez.This waterfall--Granite Falls is in a day use area near the campground.
Yes, there was a geocache located near the falls and Bob found it.
We went back to Horsetail and Bridal Veil Falls to get a few geocaches.
As we drove past the airport, we noticed this sign on some barracks-like buildings.....
...hmmmmm.....what about women?I know I have mentioned the number of hours of daylight, but did I tell you about not being able to sleep because it is always light? Well, I finally remembered we had our old silver shade we used to use to block the sun in the windshield. Bob and I got it out and cut it to fit the windows in the bedroom. There was just enough to cover all three windows. Now our bedroom is dark at night--and most of the day, too!
Valdez is a popular fishing spot for Alaskans. It is also a popular vacation spot for Europeans and Asians! We saw many rented campers in the lots at Valdez. We even saw a few at our campground.
The weather was cloudy when we arrived in Valdez and it stayed that way for most of our visit.We did quite a bit of geocaching--some caches hadn't been found since last September due to the snow--Valdez gets 30-40 feet of snow each winter!
Bob was on the trail to a cache, but decided it was too overgrown to get close. Because of the rain and the long hours of daylight, everything grows quickly in Alaska.
In 1964, the earthquake that hit Alaska wiped out the town of Valdez with its tsunami. The original town was condemned and the people had 2 years to move to the present town site.
As we walked Dock Point Trail to view the overlooks, we spotted this eagle's nest. The eagle is the white dot in the center of the picture--double click on it and you can enlarge the picture to see her. Her mate was in a tree not far from her.
Miss Peggy drives through town from morning to late evening selling espresso, ice cream, and soup. She even drives through our campground twice a night! I couldn't believe some people actually bought ice cream! It was too cold for me! The average temperature in Valdez is 55 in June and a balmy 60 in July!
The weather deteriorated by Sunday so we decided to drive out of the valley, through Thompson Pass and back to Worthington Glacier. It is an Alaskan Recreation Area.We dressed warmly since we didn't know what the weather would be like outside Valdez--it was rainy and cold!
At the recreation area, we found several geocaches, talked to the lady who runs the visitor center (moved from Cocoa Beach 45 years ago) and hiked to the glacier. It was cold and rainy, but well worth the hike!
I have more to show and tell you about Valdez, but I will save it for the next post.
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