Valdez, Alaska

After quite a long drive we came upon one of the most beautiful drives in Alaska...the drive into Valdez. The first sight you see is Worthington Glacier. It has two arms descending the mountain.

Then you begin your drive into the valley. First you see Bridal Veil Falls.

And just around the corner is Horsetail Falls.

 Once into Valdez, we stayed at Glacier View Campground which is now run by the city of Valdez. When we were in Alaska in 2010, it was run by Ft. Greeley.

 The next day we drove back out of Valdez to sight see. Our first stop was Blueberry Lake Recreation Site. What do you think you do there? Well, you pick blueberries, of course!

 Each of us picked blueberries until we had about a gallon between us.

 From there it was out to Worthington Glacier. From the state recreation site, you can only see the left arm of the glacier. The large rock behind us covers the other arm!

 We then began our return drive to Valdez, stopping once again at Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls.

 Someone had left a bouquet of red roses at the foot of Horsetail Falls.

Later that afternoon, Bob and I walked around the town of Valdez. There was interesting artwork on the railings....

 ...and in the sidewalks.

 There were a lot of kayaks at the boat dock in the marina.

 As we walked around town we also saw a lot of rabbits! I'm not sure what the story is on the rabbits, but one thing for sure is they are not snowshoe hares!

 Friday morning we took a cruise on Glacier Spirit. It is a smaller boat than Bob and I went on in 2010. It was also a shorter cruise--six and a half hours instead of nine.

 We spent most of our time in the cabin as it was cold outside.

 Columbia Glacier is calving and we got to see many icebergs as we approached the glacier.

 We didn't see nearly as many animals on this cruise, but it could have been because we were later in the season this time. We did get to see a humpback whale on our trip back to harbor. He flapped his tail for us several times.

 Once back in Valdez, we heard that pink salmon were being locked out of the fish weir across the bay. We went to check it out and found the  birds feasting on the salmon. The salmon were hatched at the local hatchery and too many returned this year. The streams they would have spawned in couldn't take the huge number of salmon returning so the gate to the weir was locked and the salmon couldn't get back upstream.

 Even the eagles had more than they could eat!

 The next day we left Valdez and headed for Tok, Alaska. We would leave Alaska and head into Canada on the part of the Alaskan Highway we missed by entering at Top of the World Highway.  Our adventures are continuing, but our time with Connie and Larry is fast drawing to a close.