Valdez

The last place we visited on our trip was Valdez. It's a neat town right on the ocean. Unfortunately, we missed some really great photo opportunities of a brown bear (grizzly) feasting on salmon. The salmon were swimming up stream to spawn; there were SO many fish in the water. The water looked like it was boiling because there were so many fish! We drove down the road and noticed a "Bear Crossing" sign on the side of the road. We got out of the truck and walked around looking at the fish in the water. Quent and I walked over to the fish hatchery to look at the salmon ladder. We were over there for a little while and noticed that a bear had crossed the road and was in the water right off shore from the parking lot where the truck was parked. We walked back over the bridge and back to the parking lot. The bear was slowly moving down the shore more toward where we were. We were one of the crazy "tourists" watching the bear, but we were ready to get back to the truck if needed. All of a sudden the bear ran up the shore, past all of us, over the bridge where we were just walking, and over to the hatchery. The bear was walking/running right where we just were. We were saying how much of a surprise that would have been if were were still over there. Whew! Pat & Sara had their camera...we left ours in the hotel room. Oops!


The next day, before leaving Valdez we ventured over to the museum.

Valdez oil. The end of the Alyeska Pipeline is in Valdez. Remember the Valdez oil spill?

Christina standing in front of Bridal Falls.