A Visit to Valdez

It’s a rainy Saturday in Valdez, so we’re not sightseeing today. Therefore, it’s a good time to update the travel journal, particularly since once we leave here tomorrow we’re not sure when or where we’ll have internet access.

Wednesday morning we packed up and left Kenny Lake for the Richardson Highway to Valdez, about 80 miles south. The Richardson Highway was Alaska’s first road, built as the ‘Valdez to Eagle Trail’ by gold seekers in 1898. It was upgraded to a road in 1920 and first paved in 1957. It was cloudy and rainy along the way, so we didn’t stop at Worthington Glacier or several beautiful waterfalls along the way. As we crossed Thompson Pass, about 2,800 feet high, we saw quite a bit of fresh snow on the mountains. It doesn’t take much elevation to have snow up here, particularly since summer seems to have abandoned much of the state.

Valdez, pronounced “Val-Deez”, is a town of about 4,000 people. The town was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake and tsunami, and has been rebuilt about two miles from the original town site. Valdez is the southern terminus of the 800 mile long Alaska pipeline.
The oil shipping terminal was built in Valdez because it is the northernmost ice-free port in Alaska, making it the shortest distance from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez loaded 1.5 million barrels of oil at the terminal and headed out, hitting Bligh reef, about 12 miles southeast, spilling 800,000 gallons of oil into the sound. Due to currents and wind, none of the oil reached the Valdez area.

Once settled in our campsites on the channel leading from the small boat harbor to the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound, it was laundry time for the gals, and time to pick up the mail for the guys. On Thursday, we drove to the other side of the arm, toward the oil terminal. No visitors have been allowed on the terminal grounds since 9/11/01 for security reasons. We were able to get to the gate for photos, as well as visit a salmon fish hatchery on the way. A large run of pink or “humpy” salmon were struggling to get up the stream and the hatchery fish ladder. There were so many salmon that they totally filled the area.

A short distance down the road from the hatchery, we observed a female black bear catching fish for herself and her nearby cubs. We didn’t see the cubs, but other bear-watchers said there were three of them. Neat!


On Friday, Debbie & Tom took a glacier tour on the Lu-Lu Belle, a 75 foot cruiser owned and operated by her skipper, Fred, for over 30 years. The boat was luxurious, with teak and mahogany trim and oriental rugs on the floors. Fred built the boat himself, and conducts all tours himself. He’s a great talker, and goes ‘the extra mile’ for his passengers. Just out of the harbor, we spotted a large number of sea otters. We traveled to Glacier Island, where we saw a number of eagles, puffin, sea lions, and humpback whales.

From there, we headed into Columbia Bay and the Columbia Glacier, the third largest glacier in Alaska. The glacier was stable, that is, not advancing or retreating, over the past 200 years, then in 1984, a large void formed behind the front of the glacier. That void filled with sea water, and the glacier front broke apart. The present head of the glacier is now about seven miles behind the previous head. Much of the ice that broke off is still in the immediate area, in the form of icebergs. Captain Fred took us way into this ice field and back out, a careful journey that took well over two hours. A most impressive cruise, indeed.

Whittlin' the Time Away

Just after passing through Glennallen about 13 miles east of our campground at Tolsona Creek, we reached the Richardson Highway and turned south toward Valdez. We stopped at the Vistor Center for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest of our National Parks, six times bigger than Yellowstone. It was created in 1980, so it's also one of the newest. There are only two gravel roads into the park, so access is very limited. Hiking and 'flightseeing' are about the only ways to see the park. The Chugach, Wrangell and St. Elias mountain ranges all converge in the park, which contains 9 of the 16 highest mountains in the U.S. We took a ranger-led nature walk while at the Visitor Center, but unfortunately, the peaks were all covered in clouds.

We stopped along the way to view the Ayeska Pipeline. The 800 mile pipeline, which stretches from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean, to Valdez, was completed in 1977 and transports 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. Approximately 420 miles are elevated over permafrost soil which would become unstable if allowed to thaw. The pipeline is layed in a zig-zag pattern, and individual sections of the pipe can move sideways on its cross beams for over 12 feet for thermal expansion and earthquake activity.

We got to Kenny Lake around noon on Monday. Ever since we started on the trip, Diane and Bob have been talking about cutting "diamond willow" for walking sticks. We've seen a number of finished sticks, and they've been for sale for $40 to $80 each. Wow! It seems a whole lot better to cut and finish them ourselves. Kenny Lake is the place for diamond willow. It grows all around the area, and the campground even loaned us a saw and told us where on their property, it could be found. We all trooped through the brush to find just the perfect sticks.
Once cut, we returned to our campsites to start whittling, or more accurately, peeling the bark. This took the rest of the afternoon, but we got the first step done. There'll be a little more work to do on the sticks, then we've got to let them dry out for up to several months before they can be finished.

On Tuesday, we took off on a day trip to Chitina (pronounced, "Chit-Na"), an historic town on the Copper River. Chitina was founded in 1910 by the builders of the Copper River & Northwestern Railway, as a waypoint on the 196 mile-long railroad from Cordova on Prince William Sound to the Kennicott Copper Mine in what is now the national park. The railroad line was abandoned when the copper mine shut down in 1938, but the town continues to exist, and is a very popular spot for dip net fishing and fish wheels. On the way to Chitina, we stopped at a roadside campground to view a beautiful waterfall on Liberty Creek. The campground was closed because a bridge across the creek had washed out, but we were still able to see the falls.

Just past Chitna we drove out to the confluence of the Copper and Chitina Rivers, and found that the sockeye salmon run was on. The fish had arrived in large numbers during the previous night, and the fish wheel and dip net fishermen were landing huge numbers of fish. We talked to a dip net fisherman who, with his son, landed over 80 fish in two hours.
Another guy who was cleaning fish caught in a fish wheel complained that he was exhausted and needed a break. I guess that we must have seemed like nice people, because the fishermen gave us three salmon; one already filleted and bagged, the others still alive. We were planning on having a picnic lunch, so Debbie had a cutting board and a sharp knife to use for cleaning the fish. Yum!

After leaving the river area, we traveled up the McCarthy Road about five miles and had a roadside picnic. Returning to Chitina, we saw this bald eagle perched just off the road. It is such a magnificant bird.

We left Kenny Lake on Wednesday morning, headed for a four day stay in Valdez. The weather isn't great; rain and fog all the way. There is such magnificant scenery in Alaska that it's a disappointment to not have clear weather. Our Alaskan friends say that this is the poorest summer in several years, and the Anchorage TV station seems to agree. According to them, there are normally 15 days over 70 degrees during an Anchorage summer; this year, there have only been two, so far. Oh well, we're here, so we're sightseeing, and enjoying it.

More later.

Wide Spot on the Road

We left the Palmer Elks Club on Saturday morning, and after stopping to dump our waste water at a gas station in Palmer, we headed east toward Glennallen. Our route from here is Hwy 1 to Glennallen, then south on Hwy 4 to Valdez. I love it! All of the state highways we’ve been on are single digits. We have five days to get to Valdez, a distance of about 260 miles. No long days on this stretch!

After stopping at several roadside rests and scenic overlooks, we decided to spend the first night at an overlook with a great view of the Matanuska Glacier. It was 11 AM, but that didn’t matter. We had a large paved parking lot that was pretty level; restrooms, an informational kiosk and as I said, a great view of the glacier. For the first time in several days, the sun came out shortly after we arrived. Hooray!

The glacier is about 37 miles long. About 18,000 years ago, it reached to Palmer, about 60 miles away. The glacier’s average width is about two miles, but at the terminus, it’s about four miles wide. It has remained fairly stable for the past 400 years.

Once we’d settled in and had lunch, we drove another mile up the road to a side road that leads to the glacier, itself. We paid a fee to enter, but drove to within ¼ mile of the glacier. From there, we walked to the glacier, and then following a line of traffic cones, we walked onto the glacier for another ¼ mile or so. It was really spectacular! Parts are covered with earth and rocks, so it seems like you’re just walking on dirt, but then you realize that beneath a few inches of dirt is the ice, and it’s 10 to 15 feet thick. From there, we walked on the ice, itself. The surface was crunchy; it made lots of noise as we walked. It’d be hard to sneak up on someone or something with all the noise. There were little rivulets of water flowing down the cracks and crevasses; enough to form a river flowing from under the front edge of the glacier.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out for our second strenuous day in a row. This time we traveled over 70 miles. Wow! We stopped to view Sheep Mountain which is a no-hunting area for Dall Sheep, which are numerous in the area. We saw several while we were stopped. Sheep Mountain is very colorful. It has gypsum and iron deposits, which cause the soil to appear as various shades of yellow and red. We stopped for lunch at the Mendeltna Creek Lodge, a historic lodge on the creek. We ate on the deck overlooking the creek and had a very nice meal.

We decided to spend Sunday night about 13 miles west of Glennallen at a beautiful campground with a creek winding by each campsite. Very nice, indeed. We had a couple of rain showers in the afternoon, but plenty of sun in between.

On Monday, we’re headed toward the Copper River Valley and the small community of Kenny Lake, where we’ll probably spend a couple of nights before continuing on to Valdez.

Palmer Elks Club Visit

We left Cooper’s Landing on Wednesday morning and traveled back to Anchorage, where we left Bob and his Jeep at the dealership for heater repair, and went shopping at Costco. There are only two Costco’s, and they're both in Anchorage. Tom waited in the parking lot, while the gals went shopping, and he was surprised to see Bob, with his motorhome and jeep pulling into the lot. Seems that the part that he needed was not in stock, and it would take a week to get it. Not in our plans, so forget the repairs for now.

We stopped back in Eagle River for fuel and a few more groceries, then up the road to the Elks Club in Palmer, about 40 miles northeast. The Elks Club has about 15 RV spaces with electricity only. There is water at the clubhouse to refill fresh water tanks, and there are gas stations within just a few miles with dump stations. The club is located on the shore of Finger Lake, a large lake with several islands. From our viewpoint, we could see about six small airplanes on floats. We’re told that a number of people commute in their planes to jobs in Anchorage.

Bob & LaVan pulled their kayaks off the cars and took off on a trip around a portion of the lake. It was a calm and beautiful afternoon for a paddle. We went into the club for cocktails and a hamburger dinner before settling in for the night. It rained most of the night and continued for much of the next day. We went into the town of Wasilla, about six miles from the Elks Club, to visit the Headquarters of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. They showed a very good video on the race, and of course, they have a well-stocked gift shop! After that visit, we went downtown and while the gals went shopping again, the guys went down the street to a Sportsman’s Warehouse. Now that’s shopping! That evening we had dinner at the club again, this time the special was Mexican food. Friday morning dawned with more rain, so much of the day was spent indoors, but we did venture over to Palmer’s farmers market. That evening, our HRRVC friends that we met at King River all came over to the Elks Club to have dinner with us. There were at least 26 of us, and we took up a large portion of the dining room. The special was a prime rib dinner, but there were so many diners that they ran out, and had to substitute a 14 ounce rib eye steak for some. The food was very good, and we had a great time visiting with our new friends.

We left Palmer on Saturday morning, heading east toward Glenallen, on our way to Valdez, our next major stop. Everyone in Alaska talks about the fireweed that blooms along the highways. While we’d seen lots of wildflowers, we hadn’t seen fireweed. Well, it’s finally blooming, and it is gorgeous! There are clouds of magenta all along the way now, to brighten the roadsides.

More on our adventures, soon.

Quick Trip South

On Friday morning we packed our “wedding clothes” into the car and headed to the Anchorage Airport, about two hours north of Cooper’s Landing. From there, we caught a flight to San Francisco, about 4 hours south. After a 1.5 hour layover which gave us the opportunity for a quick dinner, we took off again on a 1 hour flight to LAX. We got into LA about 10:30 at night, and caught a shuttle to a nearby hotel for a night’s rest.

Saturday morning we shuttled back to the airport to pick up a rental car. From there, we headed up the highway to Thousand Oaks, and Debbie’s brother John’s home. The reason? We were there to attend John and his fiancée, Deborah’s wedding. They’ve been together for ten years, and decided that this is the time to tie the knot.
Most of the family was there for the celebration, including Debbie’s 94 year-old Grandma, shown here riding with Debbie's dad on the way to the wedding. The wedding was at 4 PM at a beautiful golf course nearby.

John and Deborah’s children, Brian, 20, Sarah, 17, and Brandon, 15, served as the attendants, and the minister who performed the ceremony did a beautiful job. The whole thing was a very special event. An open bar, a fabulous dinner and dancing followed for the 200 guests. Finally exhausted by all the festivities, we caught the last limo back to John and Deborah’s home and fell into bed.

Sunday morning we had the chance to visit again for a couple of hours, and then had to leave for the airport to catch our 12:40 PM flight back to Alaska. After a two-hour flight to Denver, we were prepared for a two-hour layover, then a 5-hour flight back to Anchorage. Well, that didn’t work out. When we got to Denver, the departure board said we would be delayed from 6:10 until 8:10 PM. Then, it changed to 8:30, a little later to 9:10, followed by 9:35, 10:05, and finally to 10:30 PM. While we were still groaning about all the delays, it changed again, this time back to 8:15 PM. Hooray! About 7:45, they called the flight; we lined up, then they told us that while the plane was ready, the flight crew hadn’t arrived, yet. Rather than slip in more details, I’ll just tell you that we finally got off the ground at 9:35 PM for a 5-hour flight to Anchorage.

Even with the two-hour time change, we got into Anchorage at 1:05 AM, Monday morning. We had contemplated checking into a hotel for a few hours sleep, but once we got off the plane we felt pretty good, so we headed back to Cooper’s Landing, arriving at about 3:15 AM. We quickly fell into bed and didn’t move until about 10 AM.

Once up and dressed, we traveled with Bob and Diane to Soldotna, about 50 miles west, for lunch with Marvin and Mary, the camp hosts at Seward, who were having a fun day off. After lunch, we drove about 10 miles farther, to the town of Kenai and the mouth of the Kenai River. There’s an opportunity for all Alaska residents to fish for salmon for a short season using ‘dip nets’. Fishermen stand in water above waist high and stick a 10-12 foot net on a 15-20 foot pole into the water, hoping that migrating salmon swim into the net and are thus, caught. When the fish are migrating heavily, the fishermen are able to catch lots and lots of fish. Each head-of-household can keep 25 fish, and also 10 additional fish for each member of his family. Our friend, Ed, who we met at Eagle River, caught and kept 165 fish in June during another salmon run.

Anyway, a few fish had started their run, but while we watched for about 30 minutes, we only saw about 5 fish landed by the 40 to 50 fishermen at the river’s mouth. We’re told that during the main run, fishermen are lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, and they are all catching fish as fast as they can.

We’re leaving our spot on the beautiful Kenai River on Wednesday, heading for a few days in Palmer, not far from Anchorage, before heading down the east coast of Prince William Sound to Valdez, the southern terminus of the Alaska pipeline. More on that later.

Homer's Spit

On Sunday morning, it was off to Homer. We traveled up the Kenai Peninsula, crossed over to the west side, then down the Cook Inlet to Homer. We stopped in the largest town on the route, Soldotna, for fuel, groceries and a quick trip to the Laundromat. About ten miles before reaching Homer, we passed through Anchor Point, another small town, and the farthest west highway point in the continental US.

Homer is a town of about 3,500, and is known as the “Halibut Capital of the World”. We stayed in a campground on “The Spit”, a finger of land that extends about 3 miles into Katchemak Bay. The spit is almost exclusively devoted to the fishing industry. There must be at least a dozen fishing charter companies, fish restaurants, and of course, the full measure of gift shops. We stayed in a waterfront campground near the end of the spit. We had beachfront sites, but only electric hookups. We’d filled up with water and made sure our holding tanks were empty before setting up camp. Our stay was for four days, which is well within the limits of our capacity for dry camping. Electric hookups were a bonus, giving us the opportunity to use a small electric heater for warmth, and unlimited lights, hot water, TV, etc. during our stay.

We explored the various businesses on the Spit on Monday, visited the local library where we had wi-fi internet connections, and booked a fishing charter for the guys for Tuesday morning. That evening, we strolled over to the local ‘hot spot’, the Salty Dog Saloon for a beer before calling it a day. We met some interesting guys, including a native artist & musician, and a young man visiting from Germany.

Bright and early the next morning, the guys headed for the marina and a half-day halibut fishing charter on the “Born Free”. No, it’s not an RV, but a 40-foot diesel powered fishing boat. We traveled about 25 miles from Homer, and after a couple of location changes to find better fishing, we hit the jackpot! Halibut fishing is kind of like fishing for rocks. The fish are on the sea bottom, and so we fished with 3# weights on our lines to get the bait to the bottom. No sooner had the bait hit the bottom than, ‘jerk, jerk,’ we had fish on the line. Then it was the simple matter of cranking the weight plus the fish the 130 feet or so to the surface. Halibut really don’t fight much, but they don’t want to come to the surface, either. The catching was almost non-stop for two hours or so, although everyone threw smaller fish back. The limit is two halibut per day, and it wasn’t long until everyone had their limits. The boat then headed back to shore while the deck hand filleted all the fish on the way in. We have a Food-Saver vacuum packer in the motorhome, so as soon as we got back to camp, we packed the fish and stuck it in our freezers. We each had sixteen packages of fish which should last for several meals. Yum!

Wednesday we took a drive around Homer, checking out the view properties on top of the hills just outside of town, and visiting the region’s only winery. They make pretty good wine, considering they add local fruit, including blueberries, strawberries and rhubarb to it. Debbie and Tom went out for a nice dinner at a waterfront restaurant before turning in for our last night in Homer.

On Thursday morning, we gathered with our traveling companions for breakfast, then after hooking up our cars, headed back up the Kenai Peninsula to the community of Cooper Landing, and the Princess Kenai Wilderness Lodge and RV Park. The complex is owned and operated by Princess Cruises for their guests who want to take a land tour after (or before) taking a cruise. The lodge is on the Kenai River, a beautiful, glacier-fed river that boasts a huge salmon run several times a year. We have full hookups and cable TV. What luxury! Our gang will stay here for six nights, while Debbie and Tom head out to the Anchorage Airport on Friday morning for a trip to L.A. and the wedding of her brother, John, and his fiancée, Deborah, on Saturday. We’ll spend Friday and Saturday nights in Southern California and then head back to Anchorage on Sunday. We expect to rejoin our friends late Sunday night to continue our great Alaska adventure.

A Crazy Race!

It's been a while since I mentioned that you can see any of the pictures in the blog in its full size by clicking on the picture. Then, click the back button to return to the blog.

On Tuesday, July 1st, the weather turned beautiful!! A bit breezy, as it usually is at the coastline, but the sunshine was certainly welcome. Once the weather turned, we started doin’ the tourist thing. We took a ride to Exit Glacier, about 10 miles out of town. Exit is one of 32 glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park; a park we never knew existed. It is the only glacier accessible by road, and an easy half-mile trail leads from the Visitor Center to the glacier itself. We were warm that afternoon until we got to the glacier, then the breeze coming over the glacier caused us to put on our sweaters. All of these glaciers are fed by the Harding Icefield, a 300,000 acre expanse of ice that is several thousand feet thick. The icefield is a relic of the last ice age, and is named for President Warren Harding who visited Seward in 1923.

The next day we drove out the road across the bay from Seward to a large drydock and a state prison. Not much to see there, but the view across the bay was beautiful. We also drove past Seward a few miles to see a rustic marina and campground called, “Miller’s Landing”. Not a place that we’d want to camp, since there were signs out stating that a brown bear (grizzly) and two cubs had been seen in the campground the day before.

Thursday morning, bright and early, the guys headed out for the Russian River, a tributary of the huge Kenai River, so try our luck at catching sockeye salmon. Two friends from Anchorage were our guides, and it was a fun trip. Apparently though, we were between two salmon runs, one in June, one in July, because none of us even got a bite!
We saw several fish caught by folks who are better fishermen than we are, and we watched a grizzly eating a fish just across the river from us. We had a good time, and got back to camp by late morning.

The fourth of July in Seward is the major celebration of the year. The town of 2,500 swells to 40,000 for the weekend. Fireworks in Seward begin at midnight on July 3rd, and it’s not dark! The wind, which had been pretty constant since we arrived, decided that evening to quit. The result was the smoke from the initial fireworks pretty much obscured the remainder of the show. It was fun sitting out along the path in front of our coaches watching the throngs of people and the fireworks.

The big event of the weekend is the Mount Marathon race. The race starts and finishes in downtown Seward, but racers have to climb the 3,022 foot mountain with slopes from 38% to 60%, then run back down; a total of three miles. The race was organized in 1915, and this year was the 81st running.
Nine hundred people participate in three separate races; 350 men, 350 women, and 200 juniors, from ages 8 to 17. There are three ways to qualify for the run; a lottery, or a finishing time of less than three hours the previous year, or for those real nut cases, automatic qualification after finishing your 10th participation in the race. Our friend, David, who previously worked and lived in Alaska but who now lives in the Seattle area, has run three previous years, and ran again this year. He and Suvina, his wife, flew up a week before the race, and David trained on the mountain several times before race-day. His time was very respectable, but a ways off the record times of 43:23 for men and 50:30 for women. There’s a downtown parade on the afternoon of the fourth, and as with most small town parades, everyone participates.
There was even a wedding performed on a float during the parade. That evening we sat by our rig people-watching until bedtime, which for Tom, came early. One of our new Alaska friends, Duncan, offered to take the guys fishing on his boat, and we were leaving at 6 AM, Saturday morning.

We traveled for about 2 ½ hours before settling down to fish. Duncan hooked a halibut almost immediately, but his line broke as he was reeling it in. Bob followed just a few minutes later, but the fish got off the hook before he could bring it to the surface. LaVan was the first to actually land a fish – a nice halibut, weighing about 18 pounds. Tom had lots of bites, but he was unable to hang on to any fish. Bob was next with a 15 pound halibut. The action slowed down, so we changed locations a number of times, looking for halibut and ling cod. After a couple of hours of no action, we decided to join a number of other fishing boats trolling for silver (or coho) salmon. LaVan scored again, but instead of a salmon, a large rockfish grabbed his bait. Oh well, they taste good, too. We were unable to land any more fish, so we headed back in to Seward. We were able to spot seven or eight humpback whales, a number of bald eagles, and countless puffin, a funny little bird that swims under water about better than it flies. Once we got back to shore, we all got a lesson from Duncan as he filleted the halibut & rockfish very professionally.

Our last evening in Seward included a fish fry hosted by our Alaska “SOB” friends. For those of you who are not Holiday Rambler folks, “SOB” means “Some Other Brand” of RV. While several new friends are HR folk, the others have various other brands of RV’s. The food was fresh and tasty; these SOB folks are good cooks. We travelers contributed cole slaw, baked beans and potato salad to the dinner fixin’s. We stayed up waay to late, visiting around a huge bonfire until midnight or so.

From here, it’s off to Homer, the home of Tom Bodette; you know, the “we’ll leave the light on for you” guy in the Motel 6 ads. He’s also a well-known writer of humorous stories of Alaska.