Valdez

I expected Valdez to be just like Homer and Seward.  It certainly does not have the "harbor charm" that the others have. There aren't pretty little stores on the harbor and the harbor area isn't quite as picturesque. The water in the harbor area is glacier run off so there aren't any sea otters or other sea life. There are a lot of rabbits here.

We are in another parking lot campground. Eagles Rest

They catch some huge halibuts here

This camper is unique

There are some really good museums here. The Valdez Museum, the Old Valdez Museum and the Maxine and Jesse Whitney museum. 

We are heading toward Chicken and the Top of the World area next. 

Sweet dreams from Valdez!!

Glennallen Hwy and Richardson Hwy

We stayed at the Wilderness RV park on the Glennallen hwy. it was just .7 of a mile off the main road but was in the wilderness enough to be covered in mosquitos.  They were horrible. You absolutely could not go outside without a net. It's a shame because it was a nice campground and all sites backed up to a creek full of fish. 

The Richardson Hwy, which is the road to

Valdez had some awesome scenery.   Starting with a glacier of course

And waterfalls 

Deep cuts

More waterfalls

We are staying at Eagles Rest RV park in Valdez.  

Sweet dreams from Valdez!

Anchorage

We stayed at the Golden Nugget RV park.   Just over $40 full hookup.  We went to the aviation museum. It was really neat because the planes were either float or ski. Lots of aviation history in Alaska.

Hiawatha got in some simulator time

This is the vehicle that they use to move the float planes around. 

Too bad air travel isn't this spacious

We went to the Alaskan native heritage center. It was a rainy day and a lot of it was outside but it is a really neat place. I learned a lot about the native culture. 

The Orthodox Church is prominent in Alaska

Whale bones

Family is so important to the natives

We ate lunch at the center. Hunters stew. 

Made with caribou meat. It was so good. 

We drove to Earthquake park. I can't imagine what it would have been like to experience the 1964 earthquake 

The earthquake happened on Good Friday. 

Glaciers and Tunnels

We are staying at Williwaw USFS cg. We are in a double site $14 a day no hookup. The visitor center here is really nice and well worth a visit.  Be sure to take your senior pass to get in the museum free. It is a very good museum. We took a another glacier cruise. This one went to the Portage glacier.

Then we went to Whittier.  To get to Whittier you have to drive thru a one lane tunnel. It is so weird. On the top of the hour traffic going west goes thru and east bound goes thru starting at the bottom of the hour. Traffic is stopped in both directions if a train comes thru.   The tunnel was 2 1/2 miles long

To get to the museum in Whittier you walk thru a pedestrian tunnel

Less than 300 call Whittier home but it is a quaint little harbor town that was totally destroyed in the earthquake of 1964. You hear a lot about that earthquake here

Sweet dreams from Whittier!

Lowell point and SeaLife Center

Lowell point is a weird place on down the point from Seward.  There was a permanent settlement that looked a lot like some kind of commune.

It had a lot of chickens. 

Even the trees looked a little weird

There was a waterfall that would have been a great source of electricity

Today we went to the sealife center. It was nice. 

A Celebrity Cruise ship came into port

Is this a campground?  Not by my definition. For $40 a night you get water and electric in a gravel parking lot with campers so close we will be lucky to get out tomorrow. City of Seward Campground

Sweet dreams from Seward!