Journey to Valdez

We arrived in Valdez on June 12th

The Richardson Highway to Valdez has some beautiful scenery. We had a clear travel day








The tall bars along the road are markers so the snow plows can find the road


A glacier behind us as we paused for some photos as Thompson Pass.
Looks like 2 really dirty RVs.




The picture doesn't begin to show the vastness and how far away the mountains are. Taken at Thompson Pass

A large glacier along the way






Bridalveil Falls was breath taking. It is right by the road and there is a larg parking area across the street










We stayed at Pioneer RV Park. Very nice and they allow RV washing. They also had free Wi-Fi. We stayed a few extra days because the Spurs wre in the playoffs

Mineral creek hike

We drove around to the back side if the mountains we saw from the campground. There is the Mineral Creek trail. It was t great day....cool & sunny. We parked & started the hike, but kept running into previous avalanches that covered the trail & had to get over them. The last one was too big for us girls so we went on back, and the guys went on and came back later.

Glacier Tour

We took an all day boat ride to the Columbia and Mears glaciers. A few days before we arrived, the Columbia calved such a large piece that it filled the bay for 7 miles out. Large pieces of floating ice prevented geting as close as the boat usually goes.

On this trip we saw eagles, seals, puffins, a whale fluke, and my favorite...those cute little sea otters.









Valdez was one of our most favorite places. The melting snow was replaced with green. This was taken just outside the harbor.






This picture was actually taken in the morning on the way out. It was foggy when we left, but soon cleared up.



The boat crew passed around pieces of ice fished out of the Columbia Bay





It was really cloudy and dreary when we got as close as allowed to the Columbia Glacier. The area in back of the barrier is the bay that is filled with ice




The mountains around were spectacular



The Mears Glacier is younger than the Columbia and still forming. The boat could get to within 1/4 mile.

We only got to see a vary small piece calve off. From the sounds of all the crackling, a much larger piece was getting ready.....