VALDEZ
The next day, we became tourists in Valdez. On the way to town we stopped at the Crooked Creek Interpretative Center. This tiny creek is a salmon spawning area and Jess and I had visited it when the fish were running and flopping in the shallows. This day the run had not yet begun but the interpretative signs and center were interesting nonetheless. The signs below are best read by clicking on them.
Margaux and I climbed a trail that followed Crooked Creek up to and behind the Center where we found a waterfall and an American Dipper.
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Margaux before the falls behind the Interpretative Center. It is higher than it looks because it starts back up in the trees
American Dippers live almost solely on rushing, unpolluted waters and can be found in mountain, coastal, or even desert streams of the West. They forage in streams with rocky bottoms, and they use streams with overhanging banks for cover and nesting locations. These birds can wade, swim, and dive either from the water or from the air; they can walk submerged on the bottom and move rocks on the stream-bottom to get at food. American Dippers feed on aquatic insects and their larvae, including mayflies, mosquitoes, and midges. They also eat dragonflies, worms, small fish, fish eggs, or flying insects. American Dippers rapidly duck their heads in and out of water when looking for their stream-dwelling prey. (Internet photo.) |
A very knowledgeable woman at the Center happily answered all of our questions and even pulled out a flower field guide to tell me that the huge leaved, white flowered plants that filled the roadsides (both here and in Newfoundland) were Cow Parsnip. I was afraid that these plants were Giant Hogweed. Though both plants can cause rash and blisters, Giant Hogweed causes a severe, long lasting 3rd degree burn and rash. Though Giant Hogweed, an Asian invasive, grows in Alaska, it resembles Cow Parsnip only when young as it can grow to 14 feet whereas Cow Parsnip grows only to 5 to 8 feet. The best way to tell the young plants apart is by examining their leaves. See below. That's my lesson on these two look-alike plants. You'd be smart to avoid both.
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| Giant Hogweed (Heracleum persicum) Cow Parsnip (Heracleum lanatum) Incised deeply lobed leaf up to 5 feet in diameter Large lobed leaf up to 2.5 feet in diameter |
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| Cow parsnip left giant hogweed right |
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| Wade at the laundromat modeling a hat he'd found in the Talkeetna Brewing Company's Lost & Found |
After our Crooked Creek stop we traveled into Valdez to the Old Town Diner for breakfast and then did a group laundry at a nearby laundromat before exploring this small city with a population of under 5,000 souls. After breakfast and laundry we walked the harbor area admiring the boats and looking for bald eagles. They are plentiful over the fishy harbor. We stood for a long time watching a bald eagle being attacked by a gull, expecting that at any moment the eagle would roll over and snatch the gull, but after a long period of harassment, the two parted company. The Internet photo below of a gull in an eagle's talons and one pecking its back, shows how this dance works. Note that the gull in the talons is still fighting/biting back. Sorry. It's a low rez photo so does not enlarge well.
We walked to a nearby park to watch children playing in the park's pond, which water would have been too cold for me but I could picture Margaux playing nonchalantly in the frigid water as a kid . . . or maybe swimming across the pond as an adult. We then walked up a path to a lookout above the pond with a view across the whole town and to the mountains across the harbor. Below is a postcard view with some of the peaks named.
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| Note the oil tanks and depot on the other side of the harbor |
While the young'uns explored the north end of the harbor, Neal and I went to the Old Town Valdez museum, which highlighted the Good Friday 1964 Earthquake and Old Town Valdez. Here we toured the exhibits--one of the entire Old Town re-created in miniature--and watched a film showing the quake and hearing from those who experienced it. Basically the former town was built upon earth that turned to mud pudding with the quake and separated the dock area from the shore, trapping and killing 49 individuals on the dock who could not reach land. They disappeared never to be found.
Wikipedia: "Valdez, a former Gold Rush town, is located at the head of a fjord on the eastern side of Prince William Sound. The port did not flourish until after the Richardson Highway—the road link to Fairbanks—was constructed in 1899. Valdez suffered catastrophic damage during the 1964 Alaska Earthquake and was relocated.
The relocated [on bedrock] Valdez town site, was used as a pipe yard for the construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline, built from 1975 to 1977 to carry oil from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in northern Alaska to a terminal in Valdez, the nearest ice-free port where the oil could be loaded onto tanker ships for transport. Present day Valdez is near the site of the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill. Today Valdez is one of the most important fishing and commercial ports in Alaska." In addition, Valdez is on the ferry route and one can catch a ferry to Whittier (as we did) and other coastal Alaskan towns.
Below, some photos shot when we returned to the docks before lunch.
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| Both sides of Halibut |
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| I think these are Mew Gulls but not 100% sure. |
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| Gulls waiting for the fishing boats to dock |
While at the docks for the second time, we met Alvin "Chipmunk" ? (I didn't catch his last name.) Alvin was a shrimper and had just returned from checking his traps, which he told us were stolen from with regularity by "tourists." We thought it much more plausible that locals knew where the traps were and were poaching from them. Anyhow, by now it was lunchtime and Alvin told us that he'd meet us at the The Fat Mermaid at the north end of the street for lunch. Alvin was recognized and greeted by all as a regular, and we four enjoyed a lively lunch listening to the Chipmunk's tales, many sounding well rehearsed. The man reminded me of Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee.
By the end of the lunch, Alvin was enamored with Margaux, and she invited him to join us at the Elks Lodge that evening for its steak dinner. Alvin accepted Margaux's dinner invitation, but had to return home because he was selling one of his three motorcycles and had to meet the interested party at a certain hour that evening. Well, Margaux said she'd join him, and away the two rode on Alvin's red three-wheel motorcycle.
After dinner, Wade drove Neal and me back to the campsite and then he and Margaux were set to join Alvin on his shrimp boat at 10:00 pm . . . despite the fact that Alvin had said when we first met him that he never took tourists out on his boat. Well it turned out that the waves were too high or not right or something so the two explored a canyon at the north end of town before returning to the KOA. We all set our alarms for 5:00 am because we had to be at the ferry at 6:30 am.
DAY 13 -- SATURDAY, JUNE 22
VALDEZ TO WHITTIER TO WILLIWAW CG ON PORTAGE ROAD
VALDEZ TO WHITTIER TO WILLIWAW CG ON PORTAGE ROAD
There were about a dozen cars ahead of us when we got to the ferry terminal, prepared for our seven-hour ferry ride across Prince William Sound. I was eager for the experience because when Jess and I had taken the ferry in the opposite direction (Whittier to Valdez) seventeen years ago the weather was so poor we saw little.
After boarding we went upstairs. The bow viewing area was full, but there were few vacant seats by the windows and it was too cold to be outside, so we settled in the restaurant--where else? Neal treated me to a breakfast of raisin bread French toast and we enjoyed just sitting doing nothing for a bit. Margaux and Wade were in another room and I found them later fast asleep. After a bit I found a great place to sit outside protected from the wind and under heaters where I could enjoy the ride and take a few photos--most of which I ditched because things that impressed my naked eye were too tiny in the photos. But, I did see several groups of darling sea otters, dolphins, chunks of ice spewing from a glacier (too far away), a chunk of blue glacier ice near the ferry, bald eagles, a large barge with school buses atop it looking like toys, cell towers atop some of the the mountains, and tons of islands and shorelines that if I were a bear would have looked like a good place to fish . . . but I saw nary a bear.
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| You can just see the glacier ice floating out of the cove and the piece of blue glacier ice nearer the ferry |
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| A bald eagle in one of the trees, invisible in the photo; had I taken my real camera with me, maybe . . . |
After debarking, we drove immediately to the Anton Anderson tunnel entrance, eager to be at our Williwaw campground on Portage Glacier Road on the other side of this 2.5 mile tunnel that alternates east/west traffic and car/train traffic. The wait was fairly long. Neal fiddled and Wade whittled. Margaux and I got out of the van and took photos of each other before the tunnel entrance and the mountains. An official came and shooed us back to the van. We had unknowingly strayed beyond a "No Admittance" boundary.
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| Wade whittling. First he whittled what was to be a spoon. the spoon turned into something like a fork which turned into something resembling a native Alaskan eagle carving |
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| Margaux and me before the tunnel entrance. I am wearing my new Fat Mermaid tee |
After setting up camp, Neal rested, Margaux and Wade rode their bikes around the campground and on the many paved trails in the area, and I decided to walk one of these trails to the new visitor's center a mile and a half away. I met a couple and their darling three-year old boy on the way and he kept me smiling as he proudly showed me his spiderman tee shirt, shoes, and cap. It was a pretty walk over several boardwalks and along the paved trail. At one point I crossed a stream and took a photo of what I believe was a scoter and her young. Would they be called scoterlings?
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| Portage Lake with kayakers on it |
When I got to the Visitor's center, which looked like a WWII bunker from a distance, it was just closing. Wade and Margaux were there. I was bushed and voiced the hope that Neal, who had gone into town for ice and Cheetos, would swing by to look at the Center and thus afford me a ride back to camp. Margaux, kind soul that she is, immediately offered her bike to me. Though I was dressed in snug bluejeans and the bike had clipless pedals, I managed to cycle back to the campsite. What fun! I had forgotten how much fun the freedom of cycling is, and--forgetting about OK heat-- vowed that when I got home I would cycle more. Hasn't happened yet as I've been working on this report.That evening Neal prepared chili dogs and Wade cooked up the grayling which had been in the ice chest this while. He fried it in cornmeal and it was quite tasty. Gin after din and bed at 8:30.
DAY 14--SUNDAY, JUNE 23
WILLIWAW CG TO CENTENNIAL CG
We awoke at 3:00 am this morning to break camp, pack up, and run Margaux 53 miles to the Anchorage airport. She had organized her gear at the KOA and on the ferry so was ready to go. Margaux asked that we get her to the airport at 10:30 am for a 1:30 pm flight. On the way to Anchorage up the Turnagain Arm we hoped to see beluga whales, but the tide was out. Neal made an impromptu stop at Potter's Marsh Bird Sanctuary where in the past 17 years they have built extensive boardwalks, viewing areas, parking areas, and bathrooms.
After we dropped Margaux at the airport we three looked for a campground close to the airport so that we could run Wade to his flight the next day. Yesterday, Spiderman's parents told me that Eagle Creek was a good campground only fifteen minutes from the airport, but Neal and Wade were on a tear so drove seemingly forever checking out area campgrounds. Eventually they settled on Centennial CG located less than fifteen miles from downtown Anchorage and close to the airport. We were getting up at 3:00 am the next morning to drive Wade to the airport.
Neal, Wade, and I set up on a site next to a man and his small family. He had six rescue dogs tied to trees. He seemed a bit off but the dogs were well trained and didn't let out a peep as we set up our tents. Later the guy came over and pointed to an orange rope dangling from a high limb on a tree in the vacant campsite on the other other side of ours. The rope, he told me, was all that was left of the food cache belonging to the woman who had camped there the night before. "Bear come into camp," he explained, "snapped it right off."
Our site was a quarter mile (only slight exaggeration) from the restrooms and showers and we needed a code to get into them. The code given to us when we checked in was 8001. It worked well until mid afternoon when I was desperate to get into the bathroom but the code would not work, no matter how many times or how angrily I punched it in. Finally I asked a woman across the way what the code was. "5846," she replied. "They'd changed it earlier." Grrrr!
It just so happened that a group of Hmong had set up a market and food stalls in the parking area of the park. All we had to do was walk a short trail across a field to get there, so come lunchtime, that's what the three of us did. I greatly enjoyed a cup of chicken noodle soup and two freshly cooked egg rolls at $1.50 each. Wade got some spring rolls and shared one with me. It was hot and windy, so we ate our meals at a picnic table in the shade of a pavilion. Then we strolled the stalls. Most were selling vegetables and food but several had jewelry, purses, and other trinkets for sale.
The campsite is filled with cottonwood cotton. It floats through the air, piles up at roadside, and sticks to my hair. With the wind, it looks like it is snowing at times.
That evening, the men reorganized the van and stored things no longer needed for camping on top so that the seats would be somewhat emptier for Neal and me to sleep during our nonstop drive home. We pulled out our sleeping bags and used Neal's spongy mattress and each of us could stretch out on the back seats or the seats behind the driver to catch some winks.
After this, we drove in to Anchorage to a restaurant Neal had found when he was not on tap at the Golden Age Games. It was just closing so we ended up at the Spenard Roadhouse I think it was, and enjoyed the last great Alaskan meal of the trip.
Neal, Wade, and I set up on a site next to a man and his small family. He had six rescue dogs tied to trees. He seemed a bit off but the dogs were well trained and didn't let out a peep as we set up our tents. Later the guy came over and pointed to an orange rope dangling from a high limb on a tree in the vacant campsite on the other other side of ours. The rope, he told me, was all that was left of the food cache belonging to the woman who had camped there the night before. "Bear come into camp," he explained, "snapped it right off."
Our site was a quarter mile (only slight exaggeration) from the restrooms and showers and we needed a code to get into them. The code given to us when we checked in was 8001. It worked well until mid afternoon when I was desperate to get into the bathroom but the code would not work, no matter how many times or how angrily I punched it in. Finally I asked a woman across the way what the code was. "5846," she replied. "They'd changed it earlier." Grrrr!
It just so happened that a group of Hmong had set up a market and food stalls in the parking area of the park. All we had to do was walk a short trail across a field to get there, so come lunchtime, that's what the three of us did. I greatly enjoyed a cup of chicken noodle soup and two freshly cooked egg rolls at $1.50 each. Wade got some spring rolls and shared one with me. It was hot and windy, so we ate our meals at a picnic table in the shade of a pavilion. Then we strolled the stalls. Most were selling vegetables and food but several had jewelry, purses, and other trinkets for sale.
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| One of the items for sale at the Hmong market stalls; I imagine one would look fine with a wrapped sari-type skirt |
The campsite is filled with cottonwood cotton. It floats through the air, piles up at roadside, and sticks to my hair. With the wind, it looks like it is snowing at times.
That evening, the men reorganized the van and stored things no longer needed for camping on top so that the seats would be somewhat emptier for Neal and me to sleep during our nonstop drive home. We pulled out our sleeping bags and used Neal's spongy mattress and each of us could stretch out on the back seats or the seats behind the driver to catch some winks.
After this, we drove in to Anchorage to a restaurant Neal had found when he was not on tap at the Golden Age Games. It was just closing so we ended up at the Spenard Roadhouse I think it was, and enjoyed the last great Alaskan meal of the trip.
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| My veggie dish which was the best I've eaten |
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| Wade's bottomless spaghetti plate |
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| Neal's burger and soup |
We went to bed early and set our alarms for 3:00 am as Wade had a 5:00 am flight to Idaho and his Salmon River run. He was to meet some other river rats that day and they were all going to run the river the following day. Chain adventurer. Actually he finished cycling Alaska, spent a week or so running the Salmon river, and then a couple of days on the Spokane River before flying home.
After we dropped Wade at the airport, Neal and I drove in to Anchorage and picked up two stored bikes. Then we hit the Glenn Highway on the first leg of our nonstop trip home. When one of us drove the other napped or "slept" in the back of the van. Sounds like a plan, but I started with little sleep and it was a grueling five-and-a-half day push. We drove through Jasper and Banff Canadian Parks, however, and they were drop dead gorgeous. We did stop at their visitor's centers and wanted to camp in Jasper but all sites were taken, so we motored on. I took many pix. Finally I told Neal to slap the cell out of my hand if I raised it to take yet another photo of a mountain. We saw one moose, one brown bear, several black bears and black bear teenagers, as well as some deer. We also visited several waterfalls and visitors centers in the parks. See photos below. I may detail this drive later, but for now: "That's All She Wrote!"
Here is our bare bones drive home. We stopped only at those places highlighted in yellow. Basically the others are just larger cities we aimed for and drove through.
After we dropped Wade at the airport, Neal and I drove in to Anchorage and picked up two stored bikes. Then we hit the Glenn Highway on the first leg of our nonstop trip home. When one of us drove the other napped or "slept" in the back of the van. Sounds like a plan, but I started with little sleep and it was a grueling five-and-a-half day push. We drove through Jasper and Banff Canadian Parks, however, and they were drop dead gorgeous. We did stop at their visitor's centers and wanted to camp in Jasper but all sites were taken, so we motored on. I took many pix. Finally I told Neal to slap the cell out of my hand if I raised it to take yet another photo of a mountain. We saw one moose, one brown bear, several black bears and black bear teenagers, as well as some deer. We also visited several waterfalls and visitors centers in the parks. See photos below. I may detail this drive later, but for now: "That's All She Wrote!"
Here is our bare bones drive home. We stopped only at those places highlighted in yellow. Basically the others are just larger cities we aimed for and drove through.
Anchorage to Tok — 318 miles via Glenn Hwy
Tok to Haines Jct, YT, — 290 miles via Can-1
Haines Junction to Watson Lake YT, Canada via Yuk 1W — 367 miles
Watson Lake to Kitwanga, BC Canada Hwy 37 — 460 miles on very scenic but curvy road
Kitwanga through Prince George to McBride BC Can 16 —432 miles
McBride to Jasper Alberta, Can 16 — 103 miles
Jasper to Banff via AB-93 S — 197 miles (Stopped on Icefields Pkwy to view falls and stopped at Banff Visitor's Center)
Banff to Calgary (12.20 am to 6:30 am; shower) — 78 miles (spent 6 hours in a motel here)
Calgary to Sweetgrass, Montana — 224 miles via AB-2 and AB-4
Sweetgrass to Williston ND, Route 2 — 441 miles via US-2E
Williston to Rugby ND* to Minnewaukan, ND — 235 miles via US-2E
Minnewaukan to Hebron Nebraska — 627 miles via US 281S and US 81S (spent full night in motel here)
Hebron to Wichita, Kansas to Stillwater, OK — 322 miles via 135 and I-35 (arrived about noon) 4094 miles in 5.5 days =744 miles per day average
*The sun was just beginning to rise when I stopped in Rugby, ND and woke up Neal who donned his cycling gear and rode a mile so that he could say that he'd bicycled in North Dakota and at the geographical center of North America. I had bicycled across North Dakota on Hwy 2 and through Rugby on a 2009 cross-country bicycle ride with friends, so had been looking for this little monument.
Below, some pix shot from the car or after brief roadside stops. I took many pix of mountains, but I will spare you. They simply do not look as awesome in a photo as they do in real life:
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| View off the Glenn Highway near Sutton and Palmer on the way to Tok. |
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| Looking in the opposite direction from the photo above: A huge glacier redesigning the terrain as it creeps forward. It's front wall was mountain tall. |
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| Banff |
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| Icefields Parkway; when gearing up to cycle across Canada with the Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society (CCCTS), I had found that part of the route was on the Icefields Parkway; hip replacement got in the way of that adventure but I am happy now to at least be driving it in a van. All of the northwest US and Canada is breathtakingly beautiful. |
The first bear we saw was a brown bear. "What is the difference between a brown bear and a grizzly?" you ask. Here's the explanation given by Danny, our Denali guide, and backed up on the Internet: "Grizzly bears and brown bears are the same species (Ursus arctos), but grizzly bears are currently considered to be a separate subspecies (Ursus a. horribilis).
"Even though grizzlies are considered to be a subspecies of brown bear, the difference between a grizzly bear and a brown bear is fairly arbitrary. In North America, brown bears are generally considered to be those of the species that have access to coastal food resources like salmon. Grizzly bears live farther inland and typically do not have access to marine-derived food resources."
"Even though grizzlies are considered to be a subspecies of brown bear, the difference between a grizzly bear and a brown bear is fairly arbitrary. In North America, brown bears are generally considered to be those of the species that have access to coastal food resources like salmon. Grizzly bears live farther inland and typically do not have access to marine-derived food resources."
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| The only brown bear we saw. It seemed awfully small and I think it was a youngster. |
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| This black bear was so busy eating something--the roadside flowers?--that it didn't even look up when we pulled up beside it. |
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| Neal saw a bear this size cross the road. Of course I was sleeping but a pair of motorcyclists supported Neal's claim (Internet photo) |
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| Roosevelt Elk? Deer? Not sure what kind of deer this is but there was a small group of them. |
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| Athabasca Falls off the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park |
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| Sunwapta Falls off the Icefields Parkway, Jasper NP |
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| Banff Visitor's Center; Yes, visitors had to climb all those stairs. But, they had handicapped parking and a bus lot on the other side of the building. |
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| Banff road to a glacier; photo taken from the Visitor's Center parking lot |
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| Meadow thistle (Crisium scariosum) near the Banff Visitor Center path |
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| While we did not see any mountain goats--there are only Dall sheep in Denali-- one found Neal at the Banff Visitor's Center |
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