Valdez

Valdez is a port town as well as fishing center.  These 3 photos show the mountains surrounding the town.  There are mountains with glaciers in every direction.  This is a beautiful place.  We have had blue sky and some clouds which is nice so that we can see the tops of the mountains.  They have rainy summers and much snow in the winter.  The green covered hillsides remind you of a rain forest except that the tops are covered in ice.

 We walked several docks today looking at both small and large boats.  Pleasure craft alongside commercial fishing boats.

At dinner tonight we were talking with our waitress who is a snowboarder.  We asked where she went to snowboard and she told us of 2 roads we had passed on the way here.  I mentioned that I didn't see any ski lifts.  Well, you need a friend with a snow machine who will take you up the mountain.  This truly is the last frontier.  Valdez is known for extreme snowboarding all without developed ski areas with lifts and groomed runs.


The 1964 earthquake decimated the town of Valdez.  The town was moved 4 miles  from the end of the sound.  This is at the old town site.  There isn't much left, but signs pointing to where a few buildings stood.

 

Back to the fish hatchery.  Still no bears but lots of sea lions.  This one has a fish.  It worked the fish around to were it swallowed it whole, head first.

 There were many hungry sea lions.  They eat well and are very big.

The thousands of pink salmon are all trying to get up the fish ladder to the hatchery.  They are swimming on top of each other several fish deep.