Valdez

 

  We stayed at the Sea Otter Campground next to the small boat marina and some fish processing places. Saw a large bunny in town and a large black bear out by the Pipeline Terminal. (Mollie even saw the bear!) During the night I heard seals or sea lions, but did not see them. The water of Valdez Harbor is right outside our camper. Later we were able to see harbor seals and also sea otters. The town is ringed by water, mountains and glaciers. We drove out gravel roads to the lake in front of the immense Valdez Glacier, which winds its way up the mountains behind town. 

  We went on a wildlife and glacier tour with the Stan Stephens Co on Valdez Spirit and loved it! The Columbia Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in Prince William Sound, and was the last to start retreating in 1978. It puts tons of ice as icebergs into the water every day. We went through miles of various sized chunks of ice and got to within about 2 miles of the front of the glacier. It is too dangerous to get closer to the front because of the danger of calving ice and huge waves. Usually they are unable to get closer than 5 to 10 miles. Some of the ice chunks around were hundreds of feet tall, some large ones were stuck on the underwater moraine several miles out. During the trip, we saw a humpback whale, a minke whale, and orcas. (The trifecta of whale watching for Valdez!) Even got photos, including whale tail pix! We saw a bunch of Stellar Sea lions hauled out on an island. And a pair of eagles. And we saw puffins. Pat was able to get a long-sought-after photo of a tufted puffin (the version with a hairdo and no tuxedo – see pix). The day we left Valdez, we went by the pipeline terminal area again and were able to see the black bear!

Comments

[erica]

your pics are great! Carolyn posted them on the bulletin board! You're coming home in one month - I can't wait!!!!!
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