Smiles and Miles on Our Trips : THOMPSON PASS, KEYSTONE CANYON & THE FIRST FOUR DAYS IN RAINY VALDEZ - Sunday, May 21

Sunday, May 21, 2023

This morning was a little cloudy with sprinkles on and off throughout the day. The temperature started out at 41 degrees reaching 51 degrees in the afternoon. We left Base Camp in McCarthy heading for 189 miles to our next destination in Valdez, Alaska.

We knew that the road from McCarthy back to the Edgerton Highway 10 was going to be slow going again. However this time, we made the trip in just under 3 hours. It seemed that had did some road grading while we were at base camp.

Mel patiently watched for potholes to avoid on the gravel road. We also drove past many signs saying "entering" or "leaving" Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, reflecting the existence of numerous stretches of private property.

We drove past a lake with beautiful reflections.

We crossed the Lakina River bridge. The Lakina River is a tributary of the Chitina River located in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

And then continued down the road until we once again came to the Gilahina Trestle. The view of the trestle was prettier in this direction.

This wooden train trestle was originally 890 feet long and 90 feet high, required one-half million board feet of timber, and was completed in eight days in January 1911 as part of the Copper River Northwestern Railway to transport copper or from Kennecott to Cordova, Alaska.

Historical information posted at the Gilahina rest stop.

We then crossed over the Gilahina River and then shortly afterwards crossed the Chokosna River.

Located on McCarthy Road, about two-thirds of the way from McCarthy to Chitina, the one-lane, 525 foot long Kuskulana River Bridge is 238 feet above the bottom of the a deep, sheer-sided, rocky gorge. An original steel railroad trestle, now a modernized span, is safe to cross by vehicle, on foot, or using a wheelchair, with reinforced planks and guardrails on either side. The view of the steep-sided, rocky, black spruce canyon and the silty, rushing Kuskulana River far below is breathtaking, if not a little scary. Imagine making the crossing riding high in a heavily loaded ore train across two icy rails with no guardrails. An engineering achievement, this cantilevered bridge was constructed in two, brutally cold months in 1910.

The Copper River and sludge.

We're now back to the one-lane rock cut at the beginning of the McCarthy Road.

We stopped at the Chitina Wayside for a bathroom break and to read the information there.

Information on the Chitina Natives.

Information on when the railroad came to Chitina.

Information on the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

The barely standing Chitina Emporium above and the Lighthouse Mission below.

Hotel Chitina and other old buildings in Chitina, Alaska.

Crossing over Willow Creek, then turning toward Valdez.

On to Richardson Highway.

We ran into road construction again and had to follow a pilot truck.

It was pretty rough and slow going through the construction site.

The clouds were over the Worthington Glacier, so we didn't see much of it.

We drove up Thompson Pass which is a 2,678 foot high mountain pass through the Chugach Mountains. There are sections of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline that can be seen along the Thompson Pass.

The snow drifts were very high along the Thompson Pass.

Twenty-two miles before we were at Valdez, we drove by the welcome sign.

We then continued through Keystone Canyon until we finally reached Valdez, Alaska.

Keystone Canyon is a gorge near Valdez. Situated at an elevation of 307 feet, its walls are almost perpendicular. It measures 3 miles in length, connecting the upper and lower valleys of Lowe River. Horsetail Fall and Bridal View Falls are located within this canyon.

In my opinion, the most beautiful waterfall in the Keystone Canyon is Horsetail Falls. We will come back on another day to take pictures of the waterfalls. I was able to catch this on the fly-by.

We finally made it to Valdez.

Located at sea level, Valdez has a population of 4,011. Before the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, this little town was known for its tremendous winter snowfall which sometimes exceeded 40 feet. Valdez (pronounced val-DEEZ) is ringed by snowcapped mountains and is located on Port Valdez, an estuary off Valdez Arm in Prince William Sound. As the northernmost ice-free port, the town was established in 1898 as an outfitting point for miners taking the hazardous pack trail over Valdez Glacier to the northern gold fields.

Often called Alaska’s “Little Switzerland” because of its mountain setting where the 5,000-foot-tall Chugach Mountains rise from Prince William Sound, Valdez is the southern terminus of the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks and the trans-Alaska pipeline from Prudhoe Bay.

Valdez was established in 1897–98 as a port of entry for gold seekers bound for the Klondike goldfields. The old gold rush trail out of Valdez was developed into a pack and wagon road over Thompson Pass in the early 1900s, eventually becoming Alaska’s first automobile road—the Richardson Highway—in the early 1920s.

Until 1964, Valdez was located about 4 miles east of its present location, closer to Valdez Glacier. The 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the most destructive earthquake ever to hit southcentral Alaska, measured 9.2 on the Richter scale and was centered in Prince William Sound. The quake did not destroy Valdez but the series of local waves caused by massive underwater landslides swept over and engulfed the Valdez wharf taking 33 people with it. Seismic action shook the downtown and residential areas. Though much damage was sustained, only the waterfront was destroyed. After the quake, the Army Corps of Engineers determined the town should be relocated. By late August 1964, relocation was underway. The last residents remaining at “old” Valdez moved to the new town in 1967.

We stayed 8 nights at the Chena RV Park in Valdez ($50/night for $400 for 8 nights). It was a small campground with 10 full hook-up sites. Nice and quiet and a quick walk to town, which we will probably be doing all week.

Beautiful views from all sides of our campsite.

After getting set up, we drove into Valdez and got gas at Captain Joe's Gas Station for $4.549/gallon. We than went to find a place to eat in Valdez -- and since The Potato was not open in McCarthy, we decided to try it here in Valdez.

We each ordered a Chugach Cheesesteak sandwich and shared a basket of curly fries (for $38). We had heard so many good things about this place, but the hype was just that.

After eating, we drove around the Valdez Harbor.

And then we stopped at the Valdez Brewing Company, where Mel tried some of their craft beers.

While we were at the brewery, we met a guy that was a part owner of the brewery. We were asking about where we could find some good seafood, and he said wait here a minute and left. When he came back he had some frozen packages of fish and salmon (1 package of salmon and two packages of halibut). We asked how much we owed him, and he said nothing. That was really nice of him.

After we got back to the campsite, Mel walked over to the Carr's Safeway (which was in walking distance) and got some groceries.

Monday, May 22, 2023

Today Mel worked on getting the new truck steps put on the truck, washed the camper, truck and bicycles as they were all a mess from the gravel road to and from McCarthy Base Camp. We also got our mail picked up from the Valdez post office, filled a propane tank and got more groceries from Carr's Safeway.

We had halibut and macaroni corn for dinner. Then we decided to go do three loads of laundry.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

We had rain showers in the morning, and the temperature was 44 degrees. Then we had sunshine and reached 52 degrees in the afternoon.

I worked on downloading pictures, while Mel worked on putting new brakes on our E-bikes. After that he took one of the bikes for a test ride and stopped at the Valdez Brewery for a beer.

For dinner, we had minute steaks over pasta and covered with spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese along with dinner salads.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Another cloudy, rainy day in Valdez, with the temperature ranging from 45 to 48 degrees. We had moderate rain off and on all day. We pretty much stayed inside. I worked on my blog.

For dinner we decided to go to the Old Town Diner in Valdez.