Travels With Sir Charles: Valdez, AK

Again, today we set out late. This is becoming a habit but we are on retired, so what. We noticed we were the last to leave. We hit rush hour traffic as we pulled onto the Alaska Highway. One pickup truck traveling in each direction.

Today we are headed to Valdez. It is overcast and a bit misty but from the info boards at the pullouts we are assured there are beautiful mountains to be seen on a clear day. Just not going to happen for us today. The road to Anchorage is a mix of smooth as silk stretches, patched potholes, extreme frost heaves, and gravel road construction sections. It definitely keeps one alert. We took a couple hours to get to the cutoff to Valdez and the overcast continued.

We stopped for lunch at a pullout on the Copper River, home to Copper River Salmon. We were excited to see moose for the first time. We spotted two of them today near the road. They are more camera shy than bear (Karen saw another one today). Karen and I had a long conversation about the plural of moose. If you have two are they meese, mooses or just moose?

We tried to convince ourselves that the sky was getting lighter but we could still not see the mountains until we neared the top of Thompson Pass about 30 miles from Valdez. Suddenly the mountain tops appeared and we were near the Worthington Glacier. We stopped for pictures and Charlie loved playing and rolling in the snow at the info Kiosk. The trip over the pass was amazing with snow piled on the roadside and huge drop-offs into the valley below. We stopped again for the “Welcome to Valdez” sign and then rounded a corner and entered the Keystone Canyon with huge vertical stone walls rising high above and waterfalls at every turn. It was a beautiful stretch of highway entering the town.

Valdez is much smaller than I expected but it is completely surrounded by snow covered mountains with 360 degree panoramas. We found a place for the night at the Bear Paw RV Park and after dinner wandered the dock and marina. We watched a charter boat return to port with a full limit of Halibut. One weighed in at 115 lbs. and three or four others were in the 60 – 80 lb. range. They really know how to grow fish up here. The sunset here tonight is amazing. The skies have cleared and the mountains glow in the twilight of the evening. We are very thankful to be able to enjoy these sights!