Tolsona to Valdez

  

Day 30   Thursday July 14, 2016               Vadez, AK           Valdez Glacier Campground, site 9

134 miles

We’ve already checked off two out of the four must dos on this trip, the Arctic Circle and the Yukon-White Pass train ride out of Skagway.  In Valdez, we are set up to take an all day excursion on the “Lulu-Belle” with Capt. Fred.  That will take care of a third must do.  It takes us through Prince William Sound to watch sea life such as whales, sea otters, sea lions, etc.  The highlight of the trip is to get right up (1/2 mile) to the face of the Columbia Glacier.  We are scheduled for that 8 hr. trip tomorrow.

Valdez is the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline and the Richardson Highway.  We have already seen most of the Richardson Highway, down to the Edgerton Highway turnoff to Chitina.  South of that was new to us and here’s some new photos.

As is typical on the road system in Alaska, there are mountains everywhere you look.  In this case it was the Chugach Mts.  We saw some glaciers and icefields.  Some of the glaciers are named like the Worthington Glacier we passed by.

Passed a waterfall going through a canyon.

Went over Thompson Pass after which it was all downhill about 20 miles into Valdez.

Right after Thompson Pass we checked out Blueberry Lake SRA campground.  There were awesome views from every campsite because we were at high elevation.  I would consider camping there.  Blueberry Lake was a pretty lake perfect size for a canoe paddle.

Here’s picture from one of the campsites.

When we got to Valdez we went straight to the campground.  It was 2.5 miles down Airport Road.  The Valdez Glacier was visible from the road, but not the campground.

1484

Valdez Airport is not busy.  There were no jets taking off or landing.  The only planes we saw were prop planes.  On the way to the campground, you could see the Valdez Glacier, but not from the campround.  Although we had a nice view of a mountain with a waterfall.

The sites were OK, not great.  But the alternative was two parking gravel parking lots in town calling themselves RV Parks.  Mostly large motorhomes. 

The Valdez Glacier Campground is owned by the city of Valdez managed by a private company.  We had electric, but that’s it.  It was $30 per night, $20 without electric.  The sites were well separated with vegetation screening between sites for privacy.  The sites are quite large and we had a mouintain view with a waterfall running down it.

We drove into town to pick up our boarding passes for tomorrow’s adventure on the Lulu-Belle.  Then we drove in the heart of town where the small boat marina was.  It is full of fishing boats.  We saw where we pick up the boat tomorrow.  It wasn’t there, because it goes out every day and returns about 6:00 PM (or 18:00 for those of you that use the same time system as the rest of the world).

I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I felt like I was getting sick again.  Same symptoms as Whitehorse, but , not to the same degree.  Was very tired, dehydrated and had a very bad headache.  Marsha was very concerned and making noise about heading home.  As bad as I felt, I was not ready to go home.  And, I was going on the boat ride tomorrow no matter what.