Valdez

Buddies

Pipeline Terminal

Black Bear

This was the last day of the Valdez Gold Rush Days. 

Elvis at the fish fry

Pipeline Terminal

Cardboard boat races

Valdez Bears Video

This version Click Here Valdez Bears has better quality than the movie below. After the file downloads click on it to play (it's a 9.5 MB .mov type video file).

Click on the video below to see the bears. The lower right "square" will make the video full screen. While not the best quality it's the best I can do with the marginal internet service in the present location.

Bears in Valdez

We watched 2 bears feeding on pink salmon for 1.5 hours and it was quite a show. Mom was skilled and methodical. When she caught one it didn't get away. Often she would carry it well up on shore where it couldn't flop back in the water. The cub on the other hand was more like a kitten. He'd catch them toss them around and they would often get away. It didn't matter as he'd scramble around and catch another one.  This was at Abercrombie Creek near the fish hatchery.

Click on the tab Bears in Valdez above.

Old Valdez

If you were seeking gold that is the way to the riches. And if you were lucky the army would come and rescue you which would be long before you hit pay dirt!

All that was left of the 2 year old post office after the earthquake.

You can still get Kiped in Valdez. But Valdez pales in comparison the the Kliping we got at the Anchorage Honda dealer. Maybe I'll be able to talk about it later...

Glennallen to Valdez

 Great S'mores in Glennallen!

On the Richardson Highway to Valdez

 No area is to remote

Near Richardson Pass. Notice the small road heave. We had about 80 miles of these today and they basically covered the entire road length. The big heaves are mostly repaired leaving the roller coaster heaves and these small heaves.

Horse Tail Falls

Fish hatchery fish weir in Valdez. These are pink salmon wanting to travel upstream but the only path is to the hatchery on the other side. But it's their stream because they are hatchery fish.The stream doesn't go more than about 400' and they would totally overwhelm it if allowed to continue. But the birds love it as you can see.

At the fish weir - don't let the eggs roll off while you're down there pecking at the salmon.

That's solid fish wanting to go upstream. It was kinda hard to see but the hatchery is in the best interest of the species.

Although I wondered why the hatchery was here vs a real river where they would naturally go upstream. The Deep Creek weir that we posted earlier was exactly that and only large hatchery fish were retained.

Local Valdez color.