Valdez
August 7, 2023
We arrived in Valdez on Saturday evening July 29 and stayed until Monday morning August 7 to explore the Valdez area and enjoy the festivities of Gold Rush Days.
Months ago, I made reservations at Bear Paw Campground for its central location downtown across from the marina.
I had read somewhere that Valdez has an abundance of rabbits, some of whom would follow pedestrians with shopping bags in hopes of a handout. The ones at our campground were your normal shy bunnies! Valdez is decorated with chainsaw-carved sculptures along its very walkable streets, busy marinas and docks.
After arriving we first explored Valdez on an ATV tour with Valdez Off Road Adventures. Our Athabascan guide Daelen took us up Mineral Creek Canyon to waterfalls and a mining site, to the braided outflow of the creek, and even over to wander through Old Valdez at the end of Valdez Arm. Since Valdez is up a glacial fjord it is not on a bay but an arm (we learn a lot traveling!). It was a wonderful overview of Valdez with an ATV ride thrown in for good measure.
This is the site of Old Valdez now
A few of our days in Valdez were foggy, which is pretty normal, so we toured the local museums. The Old Valdez Museum told the events of the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. Old Valdez was built on the alluvial plain outflow of the Valdez Glacier whose silty soil saturated with water liquified during the quake and slid into the arm. The following tsunami caused more loss of life and damage to Old Valdez. At the Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum, tucked in Prince William Sound College, we were fascinated by the large collection of Native Alaskan art and artifacts as well as the extraordinary wildlife mounts.
One foggy morning we joined 12 other kayakers on a small boat for a two-hour ride out to the Columbia Glacier, stopping a few times to view wildlife and the several faces of the glacier.
The sun came out for a beautiful day by the time we reached the beach to unload the gear and kayaks.
It was fun to kayak among the little icebergs, though we would have liked to have gotten closer to the glacier as we saw other groups doing. This is one of the issues of taking a guided trip—your tour depends on the willingness, ability, and experience of the guide you get which can be luck of the draw even if you communicate expectations in advance. Not the first time this happened, so that’s all I have to say about that 😉. (I think it would have been hard to top the recent stellar jetski experience in Whittier anyway!) We chatted with other travelers in town who all raved about the Lu-Lu Belle Glacier Wildlife Cruise. Even other guides spoke of Captain Fred with a kind of reverence and awe–so, next time!
We chose a pretty day to drive through Keystone Canyon to Thompson Pass and the Worthington Glacier.
While at the glacier, we met a family who had also completed the Fairbanks Midnight Run! The view at Thompson Pass was spectacular, so we hiked out for a panoramic photo and spotted some possible boondocking campsites for the future.
On the way back we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, Horsetail Falls, and the Old Train Tunnel, where a historic gunfight ended all hope for a profitable train route from copper mines in McCarthy to the coast.
Around the other end of the Valdez Arm, we took a self-guided tour of the Solomon Gulch Hatchery where the pink and silver salmon who had made it into the main holding pens would spawn the next generation. Outside the weir, the water was thick with returning salmon–and sea lions enjoying an easy meal! Bears sometimes come to join in the feast although not while we were there.
Back in town, we enjoyed Gold Rush Days. The Kelsey Dock at the west end of town hosted a fun open-air market with live music and the Gold Rush store. We walked to the US Forest Service Crooked Creek Information Station where we “staked a claim” before panning for “gold” and were rewarded with prizes. Other activities included braided rug sewing, soap carving, and a Dutch oven demonstration.
Later, we joined a guided tour of historic homes moved from Old Valdez to New Valdez after the 1964 Earthquake. All the walking made us hungry so we had a delicious meal of tacos at the Nat Shack just up the street from our campground.
We finished our time in Valdez with “End of the Road” by Magpies on the Fly, a fun vaudeville musical about local history. They were a hoot!
