Valdez, Alaska

Horse tail waterfall

This is fun!

Our ring side seat on Valdez bay!

Our view. Of course it beautiful on this sunny day. The only one we have had so far. But it was GEORGOUS!!!!

Trying to get up the man made spill way!

A pink salmon. They are called Humpy's because of the hump in their back. Actually the males are the only ones with a hump and it is there during spawning

Sensing something is not quite right! If I were those people fishing I'd be nervous about now! They don't even seem to notice!

We're out of here kids! Dad's coming and he's ate some bad fish!

We're coming!

Whats wrong Mom?

Hey you guys, come on Mom went this way!

Play time!

Keeping an eye on the kids from a safe place!

Gotcha

Family dinner!

We made it to Valdez on Thursday, the 22nd. On the drive in we stopped next to a river and had lunch, drove through picturesque mountains marbled with snow; saw several more glaciers and huge waterfalls. With so many glaciers it is no surprise there are so many waterfalls but some of the falls look as though they came right out of the middle of the mountain. There was nothing directly above them to indicate water should be flowing. We turned off on Dayville Road and drove the 4.5 miles to where they indicated you could camp. I was really excited to see the blinking sign that read "Bears in Area". That is the one thing that I will never get tired of seeing in the wild. We had heard there were Sea Lions here because of the hatchery but nothing about bears. Allison Point Campground is right on the bay and we had a ring side seat. I loved being able to sit in the motorhome and look out the windshield to see a sea lion devouring it's catch or a sea otter floating effortlessly on its back. Our first trip to the area near the fish hatchery was incredible. To literally see 1000's of fish trying to get up the man made spill way and the fish ladder was unbelievable. There were so many fish the water was black. The fish here now are the red salmon. At different times there are different types of salmon since the hatchery releases all types. Salmon released from a hatchery try to come back to spawn just like any salmon on any river. The problem is, we've heard there are actually 30,000000 fish and the hatchery only takes in about 6000, to remove the eggs, fertilize them and release them into the wild. Each female has between 1100 and 1700 eggs. Some actually do get to areas where they spawn naturally and their offspring return also. The fish don't die in vain though because they are caught by locals for their winter food. They are also caught by commercial fishermen for pet food and other uses. That is all good but it doesn't make it any more pleasant to watch them. But that's just me!
Back at the motorhome Chip was finally able to go down to the bank and fish. He has been waiting for that since we got to Alaska. He put his raingear on and headed down to the shore. He caught 4 red salmon, 3 in the mouth and 1 snag. Not bad! Everyone we have seen fishing have all been snagging their fish. I guess because of the sheer numbers of fish they are allowing you to keep the salmon even if you snag them. Chip didn't keep any of them though since he has been told by so many people that "reds" are not good to eat. He had fun that's all that counts.
That night we went back over to the hatchery to see if the sea lions were there feeding but instead we go a treat and were able to watch a Mama and 3 cubs. That was incredible! It was fun to watch the cubs clumsily try to catch fish and Mama just doing her own thing but keeping a eye on the cubs at the same time. We watched them for a good 20 minutes when all of a sudden Mama stood up on her hind legs and started sniffing the air. She did this 3 or 4 times before she bolted. She must have smelled or heard something. She took off across the street to where the tundra is thick and hunkered down on the side of the road. The cubs followed her but not until she made this "huff, huff, huff" sound did they seem to be paying attention. They still didn't get any further than the middle of the street. So here she is on the side of the road keeping her eyes and ears peeled and the entire time watching the cubs play and wander around in the middle of the street. There was one cub that seemed to be the instigator of the rough housing and was the smallest of the 3. That was also the one that always was lagging behind and doing its own thing, and was also the one that seemed to be the most curious of people. It came within 30 feet of where Chip was standing. That made me nervous, not because of the cub but of course the Mama bear. Chip backed away and the cub turned and went back to playing with its siblings. Eventually Mama went higher up the mountain side further into the tundra and it was at at that point the cubs followed.
We decided to go and let them be (not that just the 2 of us probably made any difference, since there were a lot of people watching). We went for our 30 minute evening walk. When we returned they were back on the shore side of the road feeding. They were making their way towards the fish hatchery where the fish were easy pickin's, especially for the cubs. What an awesome start to our time here in Valdez! We have another 10 to 14 days here. I can't wait to see what those days have in store for us.

One Stop Closer To Valdez

Fireweed

Pretty lake on the Glenn Highway between Palmer and Glennallen.

The reflection is just........ ~sigh~

My creative picture of yellow flowers framing the glacier in the back. (there's a story behind this, you will understand when you read the blog)

Chip taking a picture of me taking a my "creative glacier picture"

Road damage

Frost Heave damage

Our campsite next to the lake!

We can tell we have been in Alaska a while because the Lupines have given way to the Fireweed. According to the young ladies on our Flightseeing trip that is a sign that summer is coming to an end when the Fireweed goes from budding to seed. Then there is 3 weeks left of summer. I am going to have to keep an eye on them and see what happens. It took us another 4 days to get to Valdez but only by choice. Along the way we kept seeing these beautiful glassy ponds and just had to stop and take a picture or 10. It's no wonder we don't get over 150 miles a day. We stopped to take pictures of a glacier we could see in the distance that the Milepost said was 4 miles wide. From our vantage point we could not imagine it being that large but maybe. I could see all these yellow wildflowers along the highway and I thought they would be a great accent in front of to the glacier. So I took off across the road. I got a few pictures and then headed back. Between where I was and the motorhome was an area of grass, flowers and shrub stumps. This area started at the road level and dipped down then headed back up to the parking lot where the motorhome was. As I was cutting through the grass and looking at where I was headed and not where my feet were I tripped on a stump! I was flat on my belly before I could even make a sound. We were laughing so hard, I had grass stains on my knees, and I haven't had grass stains on my knees since I was a kid. After we stop laughing and trying to figure out how that just happened, I relaxed and felt something in my T-shirt. When I looked down my collar this huge moth flew out practically hitting me in the nose, I am not kidding you it had to be at least 1 1/2 inches long. Even Chip saw it fly away and said "that was a big moth"! That did it we were laughing again! Chip had taken a couple pictures of me walking across the road it is too bad he didn't get one of my face plant in the grass. NOW that would have been funny! I checked myself to make sure I wasn't harboring anymore critters before getting in the motorhome and getting back on the road. We stopped at Lake Louise State Park. The park was 17 miles down a 19 mile long road, but it was paved. The only thing was the frost heaves made it looked like a black version of ribbon candy with a yellow stripe in it (the kind you see only at Christmas). Luckily the entire road was not that bad but we did have to drive about 30 miles an hour the entire 17 miles. So it took us 40 minutes to go 17 miles. Was it worth it? Of course it was! Just to see an area we had not seen and most people would not see because they were too busy getting from point A to point B is always worth it. All along the road you could see pond after pond and could just imagine moose standing in them during the winter eating the grass with steam coming off their warm bodies. But not today! The campground was able to accommodate a rig our size but the sites were not very level. So we picked one site then had to move to another in order to get level. As we were walking the campground, stretching our legs after sitting for a few hours, we noticed another section of sites right next to the lake. How we didn't see them when we drove in I will never know. Because we love being by the water we contemplated moving ****Look out at other campsites and foliage or look out at the lake??**** Hmmm?? We moved! AGAIN. Now we were happy! Sitting right by the lake, looking out at the water and listening to thunder! Could it get any better? After a short cloud burst (I didn't know they had thunder storms in Alaska) we went for a walk to explore the surrounding area. There were no bear warnings in or around the campground so I assumed there were no bears in the area, and we didn't see any. Actually we didn't see anything except little birds flitting from tree to tree and they were so fast you could not even tell what they were. But we did see lots of Fireweed. That is a very pretty wild flower, I wonder if it would grow at home?

Partage Glacier

I have always liked seeing arches. Must be from all the years being in So. Utah with the arched sandstone...

There's that glacier blue!!!

The dark lines are from different stages of formation. Probably from the top ice getting dirty and then the next winter snow and freeze comes along and embeds it in the glacier! (That's my story and I am sticking to it!)

After such an amazing Flightseeing trip we could not imagine anything better. But this IS Alaska! Every time we think we have seen it all we see something else. We had to backtrack in order to get to Valdez (Val-Deez) so this time we made sure we had enough time to see Portage Glacier. We have see lots of glaciers along the way but they are always so far away. On the tour boat we come within 300 yards of the face of the Glacier. That sounds like such a long way but because of the size of the Glacier it seems like you are right there! With all Glaciers I am always amazed at the blue color that comes through.

~~It is only when the light rays, red and yellow, can go further into the snow or ice, and are dispersed without being bounced back out, that the snow appears blue. The blue rays are the only ones left, because the reds and yellows tend to disperse more easily.~~

We were hoping to see some calving (when huge chunks of the glacier break away) but nothing broke off while we were there. We did however hear the cracking of the ice that the glacier makes as it moves slowly downward. According to the Ranger on our tour this particular Glacier is moving forward 18 inches a day and has approximately 100 feet of ice below the water line.

Flightseeing Trip - Soldotna, Alaska 7/15/2010

Our Float Plane

View of the Kenai River. The mouth of the river is in the right of the picture. If you can zoom in you can see the boats that are dip netting.

Ribbons of rivers leading through the tundra. People actually live next to some of these rivers. Again If you zoom in, I think next to the smaller river in the foreground is a house.

Boats lined up for a turn at the fishing hole. I think it should be called the fish barrel!

Getting away

Again

NOT this time!

You are all mine!!!!

Here fishy fishy fishy!

Thats what I call kicking back enjoying a meal!

Me smell fish!!!

Ally OOP!!!

I give him a 10 on the execution!

No so good on the entrance, so a 5

Glacier Fly Over

We flew in a small plane that held 8 passengers but there were only 6 of us so Chip sat by one window and I sat by another. It was so exciting when the engine revved up and we knew we were on our way. Boy it sure doesn't take long for the plane to get lift off. Maybe 45 seconds from "hit the throttle to off the water". From our vantage point at 3100ft. we could see the massive green tundra, numerous lakes and civilation. As we passed over the Kenai River you could see it snake its way from the Cook Inlet through Kenia then Soldotna and just keep going and going. At the mouth of the river where salt water meets fresh water, the locals were dip netting for salmon. Of course you could not see them fishing but we knew what they were doing because yesterday (Wednesday) we were down there and watched as, what seemed like 100's of boats, each with 2 to 4 people onboard, were dip netting for their subsistance limit of salmon. Each Alaskan Residence gets a subsistance license, allowing them to go to the river with this huge net and dip it in the river trying to catch the salmon as they swim upstream, hence the name "dip netting". We heard they are allowed 200 fish a day but that sounds excessive. I will have to check that one out! Anyway, back to our trip! The flight took about 25 minutes in length. We passed over the Cook Inlet from east to west. As we passed over the west bank of the inlet I was amazed to see houses on the edges of what looked like milky rivers that wound all over the ground like chocolate syurp on an ice cream sunday. The landing on the lake was smoother than a huge 747 on a landing strip, amazing. The pilot pulled the float plane up and put the pontoons right on the tundra. Ryan, one of the guides got out of the plane to get his boat for the "bear viewer's only" group of 2. This mother and daughter were from Germany on their fist trip to Alaska. I was surprised to see as Ryan walked across, what looked like soggy grass, it gave under his feet. Invision a suspension bridge bouncing under every step, that is what it looked like, and he didn't get wet. That was weird. Shortly after Ryan took his charges, our guide pulled up to the side pontoon of the plane. Rodney, a salty looking character with a New England style accent, was our guide for the day (I think I heard him say he was from Maine). Also in our boat were 2 young ladies from Cooper Landing, Alaska,(about 50 miles away), Shelby (27) and Gylda (37). It didn't take us long to get to the "fishing hole" once Rodney put gas in the little 4 stroke outboard. In his rush to get to the fishing hole before other boats he guaged his fuel wrong. No harm, No foul, we still go there and were the second boat in line to fish. As we pulled up the area where we would be fishing I was surprised to see other boats there and lined up in 2 neat and orderly lines, like they were buying tickets to a movie, one right behind the other. It was then that we learned each boat had 45 minutes at the front of the line to fish the salmon that were there waiting to move upstream. It was a little surprised that the fish could even get up that stream with all the boats fishing the area, the bears that were feeding on them and how small the stream was. But evidently they do or there would not be any fish here now trying to get there like the ones before them. (like shooting fish in a barrel). Each boat had our 45 minutes in the fishing hole once you got to the front position. It was not long after we got in line that we got to see our first bear. It was a small Black Bear and it appeared to be young by the way it fished. It chased a salmon all over the river rocks before it finally was able to latch on to it and start eating. This little guy had not even finished its catch when it must have sensed another bear arriving. It took off headed for the tundra and left its fish. It took a little while but another larger Black Bear did come down. All in all I think we saw 4 or 5 bears all within 50 to 75 feet. The best one of the day was a large Grizzly Bear and it really put on a show. It came lumbering in and headed right for the deep water where the fish were resting for their exhausting trip of the river. We watched as it swam with it face in the water looking for fish and scoop up the salmon with its huge paw, like it was picking berries. It meandered around the edge of the river and "fishing hole" eatting fish every chance it got. The bear went into the tundra and then came back, this time settling on a huge rock eyeing the water. It stood on the rock next to the water for a few seconds then jumped! Chip had the camera at the ready and got a great shot of the bear just before and after it hit the water. YAY, I was so excited. THAT was worth the entire cost of the trip right there! Once our boat limited out of salmon we headed to see some waterfalls that were not very far away. It was very pretty. I think maybe the prettiest falls we have seen so far. Ryan who had fished while his group of 2 watched the bears had gone before us and had cooked up some salmon. Chip ate some and I tasted it. it actually was pretty good! We were there about 20 minutes or so and still had some time to kill before the plane picked us up so Rodney took us to a cove he had found one time while he was out there exploring. It was a decent size cove, glassy with high rocks on one end and low lying tundra on the other. The water was an emerald green and reflected the surrounding terrain. It was very pretty and offered solitude, if that was what you were looking for. We headed back to the plane that had arrived just before we did and boarded it for our return trip. I was surprise when that wasn't the end! The last leg of our trip was to fly over a glacier. It was so exciting, the pilot flew over the glacier then banked the plane right and headed towards its outer edge. Making a sweeping turn over the massive ice. You could really see the turquoise blue color caused by the suns rays on the glacier and the crevasses caused by the melting ice.

THAT was amazing!

What an awesome ending to a perfect day

We were in Homer for the Halibut...

The Homer Spit

Scenery in Homer

Let the fishing begin! We don't care about no stinkin rain!

I want to make sure you all know I am a LADY angler, notice the pinky!!! hehehehe

Chips first Halibut! The only picture I got of any of the Halibut's. Sorry about the blood!!!

Chip's Ray he caught. He caught one that was bigger than this. I caught on about the same size. We were the Ray King and Queen!!

The Salty Dawg Saloon

Our dollar in Homer for all eternity!!

Josh, this one is for you!!!! (Josh likes Johnny Cash)

Our Dollar mixed in with all the others! This bar is covered from floor to ceiling with dollars, hats and anything someone had a notion to stick up on the walls!


Our week in Homer has come to an end and we will be heading back down the highway tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, BUT we are not going very far. We are headed for Soldotna (50 miles away) where we are going on a "flightseeing" trip. I am not going to get into details about that now because if it is "everything" it should be I will be telling you all about it next! I am so excited!!!

Homer a: "Quaint Drinking Village With a Fishing Problem"
has been a fun stop. We have walked a lot, driven every road in town (the town is pretty small), ate at the best restaurant in town (yes there is more than one), met some locals and not so locals, went to a Russian Village across the inlet, went Halibut fishing and oh yes..... took pictures of Eagles, a baby Eagle, Tufted Puffins, Common Murre, Red Face Cormorant and Otters. When we arrived here last Wednesday we wondered what we would find to do for 2 weeks so we shortened our visit to 1 week and are now wondering why we didn't stay longer. THAT is just what we do! The weather has been a mixture of rain, cold & sunshine (can't say warm)! Yesterday (Monday) and the day before were beautiful. It is amazing that around here if the sun is shining the locals are all out in t-shirts, shorts and sandals, while we are still in our jeans and light coats. That's called acclimation, even after a month we are not quite acclimated. It doesn't feel that cold any longer but it is definately not warm! We have been watching an Eagles nest that is just off the main highway into Homer to see if we can get a glimpse of the baby. Sunday we finally did. As it moved around the nest it would make a little hop and then flap it's wings, while Mom sat in a tree a little way away and just watched. I have come to the conclusion that it is not ready to fly yet because it still has down feathers on its wings. For being such a beautiful bird the chick is not very attractive. But that is the way with most birds! On our boat tour yesterday to Seldovia, the Russian Village, we talked to a family from Pennsylvania who are staying at a Bed and Breakfast here and we exchanged stories of our baby Eagle sightings. There is a nest right below the B&B where they are staying that has 2 babies in it. And those babies are at the exact same stage, doing the same thing as the one we saw. I think I would like to be there when it takes its first flight, unless it just fell to the ground. Then I would feel helpless. So maybe that is not what I want to do! :-D
THE main reason we came to Homer was to go Halibut fishing and we did that today (Tuesday 7/13/10). Unfortunately it rained all night the night before and pretty much all day out on the water. Luckily we had some rain suits that my Mom and Dad had given us a few Christmas's ago. They sure have come in handy! We were supposed to go out fishing for Halibut, Ling Cod and Rock Fish but because of the weather, very high tide swing and high seas we could not go out for anything but Halibut. That is what we really wanted anyway so we were ok with it. We started out fishing an area the captain knows to offer big fish. We didn't catch anything there. Josh, the captain must have gotten some kind of message because he took us to a bay where there is always Halibut and if you are not catching them then you probably don't have bait on your hook. He called it the Chicken Ranch! Not ideal but we caught fish! Chip and I both hooked rays (man are they hard to bring up) and released them, of course halibut, and I caught a gray cod that was used for bait! All in all the trip was fun but not quite what we hoped for. On our boat were a Father and Son from Montana. Mark the Father was a Dr. and works the Ironman competitions, he was actually there last year when we were there. He son works in a hospital in New York, doing fire retardant stuff. Both were very nice! Another man from Berkley, Ca was on the boat because of the combo of fish we were supposed to go for and when he found out we could not he was not a happy fisherman that is for sure!!! Other than it being wet and cool the bay was calm and we had a good time. We went away with 28 lbs of Halibut, not bad!! And to end the day on a high note we went to the Salty Dawg Saloon, had a beer and put a dollar bill on the ceiling.