Valdez, Alaska

Today we left Glenallen with beautiful sunshine.  It was a very nice day to travel.  We were hoping for no more bad roads like we had the last two days.  It started off good but soon we saw the dreaded orange signs.

It turned out to be not too bad

We got our first glimpse of the pipeline.  The Alaska Pipeline was constructed between 1975 and 1977.  It starts in Prudhoe Bay and ends 800 miles later in Valdez pumping oil along the way with the help of 12 pump stations.  It’s owned privately by BP (46.93%), ConocoPhillips (28.29%), ExxonMobil (20.34%,) Unocal (1.36%), and Koch Alaska Pipeline Company, (3.08%) forming the company known as Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

The scenery today was absolutely amazing.  We climbed over Thompson Pass and there was still plenty of snow on the ground.

The waterfalls were pretty amazing too and there were LOTS of them.  This one is called horsetail falls

This one is called bridal veil falls (seems there are A LOT of falls around called “bridal veil”).

This is Worthington Glacier.  It was gorgeous!!

You can even see the blue tint in this picture

This one is for you, Dortha.  These are called Lupine and they are a cousin of the Texas Bluebonnet.  Cool, huh?

We arrived in Valdez early in the afternoon At Bear Paw RV Park and found we have smokin hot wifi and cable tv so I’m a happy camper (literally).  We took a drive to the local grocery store and found out it’s a Safeway!!  Again, a happy camper.  Before we did that we checked out the fish market and came away with a beautiful piece of red sockeye salmon and some halibut cheeks.  We took our provisions home and then set out to check out some fishing charters for us.  We found out the salmon aren’t running here yet but the halibut fishing appears to be excellent.  There is also rock fish, sea bass, and others that I can’t remember.

We walked down to the marina because we saw one of the fishing boats coming in.  The limit for halibut is 2 per person and each one of them caught 2 a piece.  Nice!!   One was REALLY big at 96 pounds!!

The 96 pounder

This guy filets all the fish for them.  How nice is THAT??

Not sure what’s on the agenda for tomorrow.  I might have to do some unfun stuff like laundry.  It’s just one of those things that has to be done.  Gotta get it done before Ed & Mary Jo get here!!

I just love this little town.  It’s a little fishing town and everything is right by us.  We’re right across the street from the marina.