Glennallen to Valdez

We had a wonderful day full of surprises.  Now that we are in the RV park I wanted to show you some of what we saw.  The internet is really slow and my photos didn't upload in order.  Since it took so long to upload, I don't want to start over so bare with me.
This photo is actually the last photo.  We went to the Solomon Gulch fish hatchery last evening.  Hundreds of pink salmon have returned there.  The draw was that people told us they saw bears there eating the fish.  We didn't see any bears, Ken was told the hatchery personnel shew them away.  We did see hundreds of salmon, sea gulls and some sea lions and sea otters.  The sea gulls would collect around the sea lions and sea otters to pick up any bits of leftover fish.

Here is the start of the day.  Well not actually, Amber, Lilly, Caleb and Grace face timed with us.  Cant get better than that.  After gassing up the truck, we started down the road.  Here is what I saw when I looked up.  Mt Drum in the Wrangell Mountains.  At the next pull over for a photo without the store in the photo the mountain was nearly covered in clouds.

Once we turned the corner we spent the rest of the day driving through the Chugach Mountains.  A view out our windshield.  It looked like this all day.

Here was the next surprise.  We expected to see glaciers but here is Worthington Glacier.  We decided to stop at the state recreation site.  Once there we saw people walking up to the toe of the left side of the glacier.  As you can guess, I was getting really excited.  I might actually get to touch the glacier.

Glaciers make really new dirt and so there isn't anything growing near them.  Here is a dwarf fireweed working to get a hold in the silt the glacier grinds up. 

Once again, out of order.  This is Valdez small boat harbor.   Look at the beautiful color water, thanks to those glaciers.

 I got to walk on the ice.

 Wanted to see what the silt felt and looked like.  Interesting stuff.  It is sticky, I still have some under my fingernails.

We made it to the glacier. 

 Here is what we saw when we turned around and looked the other way.  More magnificent mountains.

The Lowe river in the valley below  Something to be in awe of at every turn.  Today we are going back up the road we came in on to see the waterfalls and scenery we didn't stop for yesterday.  After the glacier walk we decided to keep moving to the RV park and drive back today for a closer look  Stay tuned for more photos of beautiful scenery. 

At checking the desk personnel told us to plan on a salmon fry for dinner.  The park owner had gotten pink salmon from a fishing boat in the morning.  His crew were filleting them as we parked.  We really enjoyed the perfectly cooked blackened salmon.  It was  a potluck dinner so I made a big potato salad for the 4 of us to share.  Had a great dinner.  People in their RV kitchens are very creative.

Back to the salmon hatchery.  The seagulls had built nests under the road bridge.  There were wires there to try to discourage the birds but they built their nests on top of the wires 

Another photo of the huge glacier.  One of the items on my bucket list, to finally touch a glacier.  Now to see a bull moose with his big, huge rack.  Then I can go home, or not.