Journey with the Weigles: South to Valdez

On The Road Again

I realize it has been a while since last update, but alas, I am retired! Been taking some time off to just chill. We now have great wifi so hoping to catch up on photos and descriptions.

Leaving Tok for Valdez Wednesday June 16 I couldn't resist asking the gal at this little shop "what do Reindeer Hotdogs taste like". Her reply," spicey". Enough said. Carl did have an omelet with Reindeer sausage the next day. he said it was spicy but good.

Traveling on the Glen Highway-Tok Cutoff to Richardson Hwy (we will take the scenic Glen Hwy from Anchorage back to Tok at later date) where we head south to Valdez.

We had planned to stay a night in Copper Center so stopped at the Copper River Visitor Center to get the latest information on road conditions, fishing reports and campgrounds. Headed down the road a bit taking the Copper Center loop. Nice scenic round about in rustic vintage Alaska style. The riverbank campground was packed with fisherman so we decided to move along to the next campground on the list, Kenny Lake RV and Mercantile. Kenny Lake RV As usual, the ads are VERY deceiving. Carl put $50 fuel in the truck and pulled out. Even Petro didn't like it there. Dirty and unsafe in our opinion so on down the road we went.

Did have a great view of Mount Drum (12,010 ft)

and the Wrangle Mountains.

Next stop was another very inviting ad:

"Tonsina River Lodge & Mangy Moose Saloon" There ad:

Love their trademark saying, "we're all here, cause we ain't all there"

So now you have seen the ad, so this is what we found when got there:

view from a campsite

I DON'T THINK SO and they want $25 a night!!!!

Well another bust so down the road we go. It is only 3pm so we have time to get to Valdez yet today. Despite the rain it was interesting to drive as the road went alongside rivers and creeks, through mountain passes, traveled close to glaciers and passed through the Keystone Canyon.

The scenery really picks up as we get closer to Valdez. The Wrangell mountains, Mt Drum, Snider Peak, Mt Sanford, Mt Wrangell, Mt Blackburn all visible even with the clouds (yes, yet another cloudy sometimes rain sometimes not sort of day).

Worthington Glacier was magnificent it comes right down near the road. As you drive the curved highway you feel you are driving right into the glacier.There is a hiking trail, with a mile hike you can actually stand on the glacier. We didn't, but on the web you can see plenty who have.

Thompson Pass(2,678 feet) and Keystone Canyon all have stories to tell. .Here gold shipments and even an entire riverboat, dragged piece by piece, were hauled over the pass by early gold miners with horses in the winter. I just can't emagine the toughness of the prospectors, miners, railroad builders, and "business ladies" among others who forged this frontier.

Here is photograph of the prospectors crossing the pass and canyon in 1898

Below is a picture of that pass and canyon as we drove over it.

Horsetail falls and Bridal Veil falls are two of the many falls along the route.

I just can't make this stuff up. Amazing how they come from the top of the Glaciers all the way down to the rivers which we found out are a milky color from the constant ice from glaciers crushing rocks and mixing with the water. This process has been happening for years and years.

The Richardson Highway follows the route of the original gold rush stampeders between Valdez and Fairbanks, The modern road also is close at times to the trans-Alaska pipeline which carries oil 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to the pipeline terminus at Port Valdez.

Valdez (located on Prince William Sound, of course is known for the tanker oil spill that occurred in the 80's) is completely encircled on three sides by the Chugach Mountain range and the Prince William Sound on the fourth side. There are coves, in lets and bays and 2,700 miles of coast line which are the old stopping grounds for early explorers such as Captains Cook, Vancouver, Bligh and Lt Whidbey (all of which have mountains, islands, passes or something named after them), along with the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, the 1964 Earthquake and the Gold Rush of 1898 and the trans-Alaska pipeline so who's to say there is not a lot to see and do in and around Valdez. So that is exactly what we did for 3 days, took a day cruise on Prince William Sound to the Columbia Glacier, visited 4 museums and historic sites and watched 3 different historic movie. Although you would think the oil spill would be the most devastating event dominating the local history of the area, actually we discovered the 1964 Good Friday earthquake measuring 9.4 that happened for over 4 minutes then Tsunami that occurred and 32 people died had more effect. They moved the whole town 4 miles to its current site and many families are still recovering.

The Trans-Alaska pipeline oil terminal from the cruise boat.
We saw the pipeline from the road many times on our trip down the Richardson Hwy. Over a million barrels of oil leave Valdez each day for the refineries of the lower 48. Every Alaskan resident gets a yearly check (usually several thousand dollars), sort of a dividend, from a fund set up by the government for the pipeline using Alaskan property. Something like that anyway. Our thought is that perhaps some of that fund would better be used to improve the roads. What ever.
At the Valdez Museum we saw extensive exhibits about the building of the pipeline and the effects (both positive and negative) on the local and state people and economy. We workcamped with a guy in New York who worked on the pipeline for 2 years in the 70s. So we already had a little feel for the project.

They have made many safety improvements in the harbor since the disaster and much of the economy and wild life has recovered, but not without sad losses and anger. Right shows a sign posted in the display at the museum. Below is a link to the latest study of recovery for the area.
http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/recovery/status.cfm
Leaves us all with questions and doubts about BPs sincerity in making amends for what has happened in the Gulf. Sad times in deed.

A little information on how the inside of the pipe is kept in tip top shape.

At the Whitney Museum at the Community College we saw many artifacts and examples of the original inhabitants and wildlife. Well worth the visit.
We saw the most beautiful furniture made by native artisans from moose antlers. Simply amazing. The Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum contains one of the largest collections of Native Alaskan art and artifacts in the world. The Whitneys came to Alaska in 1947, and Maxine traveled to Native villages throughout the territory, buying items directly from the artists to sell in her gift shop. In 1969, Maxine assumed ownership of the Eskimo Museum in Fairbanks, and continued her collecting until the mid-1980s. The collection was donated by Ms. Whitney to Prince William Sound Community College in 1998

Valdez rarely gets above 60 degrees mostly in the 50's and I am beginning to believe the clouds never go away either.We were wet and cold the entire time we were there. Average winter temps are around 22 degrees, unlike Tok with something like -30. Locals tell us they average about 300-500 inches of snow each year. Thompson pass is also considered to have the most extreme snowfall in Alaska with record measurement of 974.5 inches in the 1952-53 season.

Snow poles along the highway mark the road edge for the snow plows I don't care what anybody says, THAT'S A LOT OF SNOW. Again with the snow plow poles to the right.
The young gal at the "old Valdez museum" told us everyone snowshoes or skies.

All this and we haven't even shown you photos of our Prince William Sound cruise yet. Since we have the "Great Alaskan TourSaver" book we got a two for one deal so very affordable. Paid for our book with this one tour, not to mention the museum entrance fees and so forth. If you are going to Alaska and plan to see many things at all, get yourself a book. Worth it. Anyway, here is just a little of what we saw on our 6 hour tour of Prince William Sound and Columbia Glacier. We saw Eagles, whales, sea lions, porpoises, sea otters, shrimp fishing boats, Puffins, Herons, and more. The captain did a fine job of narrating what we were looking at and giving us a history of Valdez. We met many fine folks, including a couple from Warren MI and the editor of the Fairbanks newspaper who invited us to join him at the Heritage Center when we are in Fairbanks. Most of the passengers were with tour groups and cruises and spoke a variety of languages.