Tuesday, July 19: Valdez

 The quick trip south to Valdez only took a few short hours. The mountains were misty along the Richardson Highway until we topped the pass and then it was thick with fog. A few travelers stopped along the way up stopped to view the Worthington Glacier through the mist. The mountains along the coast are incredibly beautiful and rugged with lush greenery along the lower slopes and forbidding black rock contrasted by snow and ice above. The interior mountains tend to be less rugged looking with some appearing to have high flat meadows along with more color above tree line. 

We stopped for a couple of geocaches and to walk Trey along the way. Larry even turned around at one point to go back to a roadside seller of caribou and moose antlers, a Trey favorite! Betsy and I stopped a few miles on at the bottom of a long steep decline to get a geocache and some firewood at a local store. The firewood was outside in a covered open-air display where you paid on the honor system. But I wanted to pay inside and let the owners know I was going to send Larry back across the road to pick up two of the three bundles I bought. Turns out the ‘store’ featuring fruits, vegetables, and a few dry goods was the converted living room of the house where the owner’s family lived. A twelve year old boy came out at the ringing of the bells tied to the from door. He was startled to see a stranger in his living room and almost ran back into the hall he had emerged from. I convinced him I was harmless and was only there to give him the twenty dollars for firewood that another person would be picking up. Transaction completed, I left, and he quietly disappeared. I’m thinking that there are many stores like this in remote areas of Alaska where locals come for the few items they can’t get themselves. 

Once in Valdez we checked in at the RV park and did a quick tour of town including two trips to the new Valdez Brewery. The first was to check it out and the second was to have fish and chips from Poor Betty’s food truck outside the front door and, oh, to have another beer. Turns out Betty just got married, a fact that she was surprised to hear that we knew, being obviously from out of town and all, until we told her the guy at the hardware store told us about the two local breweries and that Betty’s place was the best place for fish and chips. Turns out the guy from the hardware store got her ring for his good friend, her new husband, from the jewelers in his family. Small town! BTW - $30 got us a half pound of halibut and a ton of chips. 

Between beers we visited the local fish hatchery where they spawn Silver Salmon. As the salmon return from the ocean the seals, birds, and bears line up to feast. Today there were no bears but plenty of seals and seagulls with a few eagles circling around. 

Warning near the hatchery. Run for your life! 

It’s not a rock in the stream, it’s a sea lion! 

Only in Alaska have I seen a giant 5th wheel in line at the drive-up coffee shop.