Saturday, June 18, 2016

Valdez Alaska

It's hard to find a prettier place anywhere in Alaska than Valdez.....

The average annual snowfall in the town is over 25 feet per year....
On Thompson Pass, the average annual snowfall is over 50 feet of snow a year....
4000 people live in Valdez  and many work at the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline....


4 tides a day...2 low and 2 high....


Buddies from Pier 11 would love this place


Every kind of boat


Eagle Feeding at 5 pm every day


Captain spent 6 hours on the coach and truck


Clouds on Saturday


Our campground is a busy place


Snow stream coming down the mountain


Port Valdez is located on an estuary off Valdez Arm


in Prince William Sound


Elevation:  Sea level


the Trans-Alaska pipeline


Alyeska Pipeline Terminal Complex


Closed to the public....guess that means us


The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline began in March 1975 and completed in 1977, employed some 30,000 workers at its peak and was the largest and most expensive privately funded construction project ever taken.
The 48-inch-diameter pipeline winds through 3 major mountain ranges, with its highest point 4,739 feet at Atigun Pass in the Brooks Range, 170 miles south of Prudhoe Bay.  Along the Richardson Highway, the pipeline crests the Alaska Range at 3,420 feet at Isabel Pass, before descending into the Copper River basin.  It crosses the Chugach Mountains at Thompson Pass and descends through the Keystone Canyon to Valdez, where it is fed by gravity into tanks or oil tankers at the marine terminal.
Now we knew that....

Smooth as glass


 Solomon Gulch Falls


Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery


Lowe River moving today


A 9.2 quake destroyed the original town site of Valdez on March 27,1964


Back downtown to the marina


On the industrial side 


Salmon for Salmon Burgers


Harbor Street


Alaska Ferry Terminal


One last look at Prince William Sound


Captain has found a car show


Rain was starting....camera man left


Captain and his CLEAN coach and truck

Nice stay in Valdez.....just beautiful with the snow-covered peaks and harbor....we leave tomorrow for Kenny's Lake and a truck trip on the Edgerton Highway to Chitina and McCarthy Road to Kennicott/Mc Carthy area......


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