Thursday, August 25, 2022

Valdez


 8/22- 8/25 Valdez - Sugpiaq, Ahtna, and Eyak lands

After taking care of laundry and showers we picked Cameron up at the Anchorage airport for his week with us. We immediately began driving to Valdez, about a 5 hour drive without stops. As usual, it was rainy with low clouds so much of the scenery was obscured, but it was still a beautiful drive.


Matanuska Glacier




Our boondocking  spot for the night on Robe Lake - Looked like this machine got caught in flooding
Morning view
Turns out it's a machine for culling the grasses that grow in the lake
Our touring vessel for Resurrection Bay - holds about 40 guests but we were under 30, including the 3 person crew
The captain was a character with 43 years of doing this. Here he is giving his intro schtick - note the Persian rugs and wood work 



Sea Otters





Passing fresh hot brownies to the fishing crew - good diplomacy
The color of the water!


43 years of doing this lets you know how close you can get to look for puffins nesting


They were smaller than I expected - and harder to photo


Sea lions

Iceberg!

A little windy and cold when motoring towards the glacier






Seals
Columbia Glacier
Much less windy when slowly maneuvering through icebergs





Having seen Titanic, this was a little unnerving

While up in the pilot house I was trying to get my guys' attention so Captain Fred used his speaker system to tell them to turn around.



Despite the concentration needed, he still managed to keep up an almost constant chatter about the sights





After the tour the three of us celebrated at the local brewery 
Wednesday was another dreary day but we drove through the Peter Pan Seafood grounds where the seasonal workers lived in dorms and ate at a mess hall. Cam bought a fresh frozen salmon filet.

Eagles at the pier
Valdez had dozens of waterfalls 
Valdez Glacier lake - we couldn't see the glacier and didn't have our kayaks to paddle towards it, but the lake was eerily beautiful with all its floating ice




Salmon - unfortunately in their dying stage
This was a hard fact of life to see. In the background is old Valdez, which had to move to its current spot after the 1964 Good Friday earthquake.
Another night at our secluded Robe Lake boondocking site and the morning view was wonderful

Cam decided to brave the cold
After a hot water shower to warm up we headed to the Valdez fish hatchery



More salmon at the end of their lives
Sea Lions sitting at the fishing weir buffet

Seals got in on the action too
Headed out of Valdez and stopped at Horsetail Falls

And Bridal Falls
This abandoned tunnel was hand dug for the railroad, but was abandoned when a feud between the rival railroad companies resulted in a gun battle



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