Valdez, Alaska

July 19, 2024 – Friday – Day 26

We left camp around 9 am and our first stop was for a hike at Worthington Glacier.  However, it was not much of a hike, but a walk around a paved trail, quite a way from the glacier.  The glacier has receded so much that you cannot hike to it and walk on the ice.

We continued towards Valdez but stopped at a couple of waterfalls along the way.

We spent much of the day at the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery.  This is a salmon fish hatchery ran by the local fisherman organization.  It is a great place to watch for wildlife such as bears, sea lions and other predators.  We stayed for a few hours and saw a lot of fish, sea lions and bald eagles.  We did not see any bears.

We ended up camping about 15 miles outside of Valdez.  It is hard to find free campsites in these small towns.  Tomorrow we are staying at a campground in the town.

July 20, 2024 – Saturday – Day 27

We had a nice quiet night outside of Valdez, except for kids on 4-wheelers driving on the road.  We drove into Valdez and visited the local museum.  In the museum they had the stories of two major disasters associated with Valdez.  First was the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  I learned that Valdez was not affected by the oil spill.  The affected area was miles from the town, but because of the ship’s name and the clean-up efforts were headquartered in Valdez, it’s easy to think the damage was closer to the town.

The second disaster was the March 27, 1964, Good Friday Earthquake.  The largest earthquake in the US was centered near Valdez.  The earthquake damaged many buildings and a large area of the coastline fell into the ocean causing a tsunami that damaged much of the town.  The ground where the town was situated sunk by 3-6 feet.  This caused flooding during the higher tides.  So the town was effectively destroyed.  The land where the town sat was so unstable that they decided to move the entire town 4 miles west onto more stable ground.  So the new Valdez was designed and built from the ground up and everyone moved to the new town in 1967.  The old town was emptied then burnt to the ground.

After the museum we washed the van again and also did some grocery shopping.  Valdez is an isolated town, so everything was 30-40% higher in cost, so we only bought what we needed.

We then went to our campsite at Valdez RV Campground.  It is basically a parking lot for RV, but we stayed in the tent area and there was a strip of grass behind our camping spot.  We spent a few hours cleaning the van.  1200 miles of dirt road put a lot of dust and mud everywhere and this was our first opportunity to do a good cleaning.  It was also warm and sunny and no rain.

Later in the afternoon we walked to the waterfront and watched the fishing boats come in and clean their catch.  The campground is within walking distance of the entire town, so as long as the weather stays good, we can explore the town on foot for the next few days.