Sharp's Travels

We left our Palmer campground at 9:15 am. 60 miles east on the Glenn Highway we pulled into an overlook for a spectacular view of the 27-mile long Matanuska Glacier. What a site! At Glenallen we turned onto the Richardson Highway towards Valdez, on the shores of Prince William Sound. The sites traveling through the mountains were so pretty. Worthington Glacier is visible from several turnouts around mile marker 28. Hope some of our pictures do it justice. Valdez is home to 5 glaciers. The Worthington, Columbia, Meares, Shoup and the Valdez glaciers.

We got glimpses of the Alaskan Pipeline here and there. In the early 1970’s Valdez became the staging area for work on the lower portion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Today Valdez hosts the Valdez Marine Terminal, which is the southernmost end of the 800 mile pipeline.

We went through the Thompson Pass, which is at an elevation of 2,678ft., and is above the tree line.

Coming through Keystone Canyon was spectacular. The high rock walls and curvy roads made for some beautiful scenery.

As we were nearing Valdez, we came upon Bridal Falls and Horseshoe Falls. We stopped and took a number of pictures. It was a very pretty site.

Most of the road coming through the mountains was very bumpy. There were a lot of frost heaves that kept your speed down to 30 or 40 miles per hour.

We arrived in Valdez around 5 pm. The first campground we tried was full. They called The Eagle’s Rest Campground for us and we were able to get in there. We set up camp quickly so we could follow a small stream down to the shoreline. We stopped a one turnoff and the salmon were thick in the water. They were all trying to swim upstream to spawn and many of them were dead lying on the rocks along the stream. The seagulls were right down in the stream catching and eating the fish as they tried to swim upstream. We were told the bears had been feeding there too. It was really something to see hundreds and hundreds of fish swimming in such tight clusters.

Down on the shoreline the water was black with salmon, working their way upstream. The sea lions were just off shore feeding on the fish also.

Supper was late tonight, just too much to see.

For pictures of the day see album: Palmer to Valdez 8-8-08