ALASKA – VALDEZ

July 15 Sunday Left Anchorage about 9am for Valdez. It was raining pretty steadily. Not too great for picture taking until we were almost to Matanuska Glacier on the Glenn Highway. This glacier trends northwest for 27 miles into the Chugach Mountains and its' average width is 2 miles. As soon as the sun was out, we started taking pictures.

Pretty sight on the drive

Mr. Skunk enjoying the views

Liz in front of Matanuska Glacier

Another view of Matanuska Glacier

 

Look closely to see the snow reflecting poles for snowplowing

The nice weather kept up until we headed into Thompson Pass. We heard in town that Thomspson Pass got 75 feet of snow last winter! And, it even snowed some there last week! As we approached the summit, it was very foggy and raining.

Top of Thompson Pass ---YIKES!

Descending Thompson Pass

  Once we descended the fog cleared but the rain continued. It was still raining when we stopped to take pictures of Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls and our RV

When we got to Valdez, it was raining and only about 44 degrees! We heard that a grizzly bear and her 4 cubs had been showing up about 6:30pm at the salmon hatchery for dinner each night. We drove out there, but did not see the bear. However, we did see many bald eagles and sea lions. Gary got some great pictures of these.

Bald Eagle - one of 20 we saw

Four young eagles...they will be prettier when fully mature

Fisherman and sea lions - here for the salmon

Got my salmon!

Where's our salmon?