Our 2007 Driving Tour Of Alaska - Valdez, Days 19-21
May 26, Day 19: Up and out about 8:30 AM. Had breakfast at the Caribou again, still worrying about Stacie and Jana from yesterday. After breakfast, we struck out for Valdez, straight down AK-4.
We debated for a while on whether or not to drive over to Chitna to check on whether Stacie's and Jana's van had made it back there but decided against it, figuring they probably got it out of the wash and had driven on to McCarthy. The weather turned off really lousy. Very heavy overcast and constant rain. It was so dark, we thought we were in the midst of winter when there is no sun. The scenery was beautiful through the mountains but the overcast made it so dark, it was not feasible to try to get any shots of it. The photo below shows something of the conditions - and this is after digital manipulation to brighten it!
The Alaska route 4 runs through the Thompson Pass which is at about 2300 feet. It was very cold and rained the entire portion of the trip through the mountains. We stopped at Worthington Glacier where the Visitors' Center had just opened for the season and they had their new stock in boxes piled in all the aisles. One of the ladies in the Visitors' Center could call up a bald eagle by throwing out some chicken necks. We could see the eagle on the hillside but he refused to fly down to pick up the treat. We were unable to take the hike up to the glacier due to the extremely bad weather but I did get a couple of pictures from an overlook above the Visitors' Center.
As we approached Valdez, there were a number of waterfalls right beside the highway. I stopped and got shots of two ot them. They were very tall. I don't know the height but it was waaaaay up to the top of the tallest of the two.
We arrived at Valdez a too early to check in at the Best Western so we explored the area a bit - and hoping to see Stacie and Jana's van in one of the numerous campgrounds. We checked out the Visitors' Center, drove around the community and, finally, ate dinner at the Totem Inn. We checked in at the hotel, walked around the area for a while then crashed for the night.
May 27, Day 20: Up and out about 8:45 AM. We checked out the hotel restaurant for breakfast but they only offered a great buffet which was more than we wanted so we ate some muffins we had bought earlier. We went to the office of the Stan Stephen's Marine Tours and made reservations for the tour the next day (Monday). Then we identified the terminal of the Alaska Pipeline across Prince William Sound and wandered down to the Marine Highway Ferry Terminal where there were some people fishing. We hoped they were fishing for salmon but they weren't.
After the Ferry Terminal, we went by a small pond at the "City Center", a convention center operated by the City of Valdez, to see the ducks and swallows on (and over) the pond. We saw Northern Pintails (first photo), Barrows Goldeneye and numerous swallows flying over the pond. Two of the swallows can be seen in the upper left corner and along the right side of the second photo.
After going by the Visitors' Center and being reassured that we could walk around the glacier melt pond to see the Valdez Glacier, we headed out the road to the Glacier. We tried every way to get around the glacier melt pond but were unable without wading the outflow river or creek which was pretty swift, though only a few feet deep. We climbed a hill on the other side of the pond but could find no way down and around. We tramped all over the area trying to get a good angle on the glacier which was way up a valley from the closest position to which we could maneuver. I did manage to get a couple of shots from angles that allowed a view of the glacier though. The first is taken across the melt pond - note the icebergs floating in the pond. The second was taken from a position on a bluff along the outflow river.
After a very late lunch at Edgewater Grill (great restaurant!)we decided to drive out Dayville Road which is the route to the pipeline terminal. We drove back along the Richardson Highway and turned onto Dayville Road which loops around the end of Prince William Sound and down the other side of the sound. We knew the terminal was heavily guarded due to fears of terrorist attacks but there were other features that were interesting along the road. We saw some harbor seals in Prince William Sound, a whole bank of bright yellow Skunk Lilies and the fish hatchery. Since it was raining, we didn't try to photograph any of these but I made a mental note to go back later to try to get some shots of the Skunk Lilies.
We went back to the hotel, ate some munchies, downloaded images and crashed.
The cruise was billed as a trip to Shoup and Columbia Glaciers, the more prominent being the huge Columbia Glacier, as well as cruising around Prince William Sound. As has become customary during our visit, it was heavily overcast and began raining as we left the dock. It seemed that we experienced rain most of the time on the coasts. We started out by cruising by the Alaska Pipeline Terminal but could not approach closely due to security regulations.
A romp of Sea Otters (yes, the group is called a romp - grin) were encountered just outside the verboten area around the terminal. They allowed the boat to get fairly close. There were several females with cubs in the group as well. The young were a real treat.
As the ship exited the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound, we saw this Bald Eagle on a cliff side. I have better Eagle photos but I liked the bird in its environment that this view offered.
We soon encountered icebergs from, I presume, Shoup glacier. These were quite large and the typical blue color. The blue is due to absorption of the red end of the spectrum, leaving the reflected light heavily dominated by the short wavelengths (Blue). Note the sea gulls roosting on the iceberg in the first photo.
The next interesting thing we encountered was a large pod of Sea Lions hauled out on a rock shelf. It appeared that there was a big male in the middle of the pack and a second lone male on a rock just away from the large group. The lone male is visible at the right margin of the first photo.
In Columbia Bay, we saw many more icebergs. They became more numerous the closer to the glacier we got. The captain announced that the iceberg pack would keep us from getting closer than about 11 miles to the Columbia Glacier. We rambled around in the iceberg pack for a while and did get to see the glacier in the distance. It didn't seem to be 11 miles away to me though.
One of the icebergs was being used as a haulout by a romp of sea otters. As the boat approached, they became nervous and began to slide into the water.
As we were moving out of Columbia Bay, someone spotted a couple of humpbacked whales feeding along the shore of the bay. We moved closer and they continued to feed maybe a couple of hundred feet from the boat. We were there for about fifteen minutes while they played around between the boat and the shore. One of the whales would roll on his/her side and wave a flipper in the air. They rolled out of the water breathing very close to the boat at times. This was one of the highlights of the trip.
After a while, the whales swam away from the area and we proceeded on through the bay. At one point, we spotted these sea lions hauled out on a bouy.
The scenery from the boat was really spectacular throughout most of the cruise. Unfortunately, it was wet and cold outside, especially when the boat was moving, so we didn't go out to photograph the scenery. However, there were a couple of waterfalls along the way that were pretty impressive. I did get shots of them.
After getting back into the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound, a pod of Dall Porpoises began to follow the boat, riding the bow wave. They played with us for some time but they were moving very fast and would come up to breath and immediately disappear below the water. I got a lot of shots but few that were acceptable.
We returned to the dock about 4:30 or 5:00, disembarked and had dinner at Edgewater Grill. There was a lot of daylight left after we finished dinner so we rode out Dayville road again. I wanted to get some shots of the Skunk Lilies.
After spending a while with the Skunk Lilies and watching marine mammals for a while, we rode through a number of the campgrounds to see if we could spot the Stacie and Jana's van but no joy. So, we went back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow we leave Valdez for Tok.