Day 47: Valdez, Alaska

Valdez Campground is a memorable one for us as we are parked right on the shore.  There is continuous small boat traffic heading out to fish.  Valdez is noted for great sport  and commercial fishing.  We look across the harbour at the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal.

Getting ready to walk to the tour boat

At 9 am we walked to the cruise terminal.  Today we took a 9 hour Glacier and Wildlife Cruise through Prince William Sound.  The day started out very foggy but soon brightened and turned out to be a glorious one.  Our destination was to the tip of Meares Glacier a distance of 40 miles past very scenic islands, spectacular shoreline with glaciers, waterfalls and the rugged snow capped Chugach Mountains.  Glaciers cover 5% of Alaska, some 30,000 acres.

Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlilfe Cruise

As we neared Columbia Bay we started to see glacial ice from Columbia Glacier.

Ice from the Columbia Glacier

Steller Sea Lions sunning themselves on a buoy.

Steller Sea Lions Sunbathing

We saw several groups of sea otters relaxing floating on their backs in the ocean.


One of many Otters sun bathing

At the base of Meares Glacier we saw many harbour seals sunning themselves on chunks of ice that had calved off the glacier.  We heard the glacier cracking and banging and saw some calving into the ocean.

Meares Glacier

Harbour Seals also sunning on the floating ice 

We saw assorted birds, eagles, puffins, cormorants, kittiwakes.  We also saw sea lions and porpoises playing beside the boat and a couple of bears on the shore.  While we were on this trip, we missed the bear that walked through our campground this afternoon. 

Puffin swimming in the water

Beautiful blue water with
snow capped mountains in the background

We were served a nice lunch around 12:00, and a delicious clam chowder snack about 5 pm.  All through the trip the captain gave a good narrative talk  covering Valdez, the glaciers, the wildlife, oil shipping, etc. 

Valdez is noted as the terminus of the 800 mile Alyeska Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay.

Terminus of the Alyeska Pipeline

Winters in Valdez are warmer than inland because of the warming effect of the ocean.  However, it is inundated with 40 feet or more of snow.  Our boat captain described summer weather as being “variable to terrible”.  We were lucky to have such great viewing and smooth water for our tour.

Submitted by Rig #10

Ivy & George