The Richardson Highway into Valdez, known as Little Switzerland, is a long climb up Thompson Pass and then an 8% downgrade for 8 miles into town.  Scenery on the way is amazing with views of the Wrangell Mountains and Matanuska Glacier, I told Duf to drive and I would do the looking. We walked up to the Worthington Glacier and the temperature dropped 20 degrees! It is a massive amount of snow and ice. Before entering town was the Bridal Veil Falls that are huge and beautiful.The wild orchids, lupine and wild sweet pea were in full bloom along the highway. The Alaskan Pipeline is visible until 15 miles outside of town and then it goes underground. The pipeline is high off the ground so the animals are able to walk under, is able to move 4 feet from side to side and the legs are made to help the perm frost not melt. Across the bay from Valdez is the Pipeline terminus where oil is stored and ships are loaded. This area is full of security and we were told there is more security in the area of Valdez than any other area of the USA. Of course Valdez is quite small so .........

Valdez is only 2 blocks long and most of the buildings are for charter fishing, sightseeing cruises, or kayaking.  The road ends at the ferry station. Valdez is the most northerly ice-free port in the Western Hemisphere, they get 40 feet of snow but the bay does not freeze and there is boat activity year round. Salmon are spawning and this brings out the bears. We saw millions of dead salmon and the sea gulls were feasting. We could go to the creek and see bears eat salmon. 

Valdez is full of large rabbits of all colors! We were told that this is their good month because the bears are into the salmon, BUT next month the bears will be into rabbits and most of them will not make it. It was crazy because they were everywhere and every color!

We all got up at 1 AM and saw the northern lights. They were beautiful!

We went on a day long sightseeing boat to the the Columbia Ice Fields and the Mears Glacier which calved three times while we watched! We saw whales and seals as we traveled to the glacier.

Duf went salmon fishing and we ended up with 21 pounds of salmon in our little freezer. The salmon and halibut have filled the freezer!

Kodak, Cornalia Marie, and Saga are ships from the show Deadliest Catch and were in port. When it is not crab season they are tenders for the salmon fishermen.

 Bridal Veil Falls

 Mears Glacier and yes the ice does look blue! Glaciers are very noisy, it sounded like there was a logging camp around the ice corner.

 An Eagle that posed for me.

 These boats would have the small boat make a big circle with a net for catching fish.