You say Valdez I say Valdeez

Our next stop was Valdez (pronounced Valdeez according to the natives). Valdez was struck by the 1964 earthquake which wiped out the town. The town had been built on mud flats and it slid into the ocean. The new town was moved 3 miles to higher ground and rebuilt where it stands today. It is also where the famous Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred a few years later. Without bad luck, these poor people would not have any luck at all. They are hardy souls and seem to have recovered well.

We camped at Allison Point on Prince William Sound, not far from the Alaska Pipe Line terminal. This is where the pipe line ends and the oil gets loaded onto tankers. There is not much to see except for 4 large docks and about 16 huge oil tanks, which held 450,000 barrels, or almost 19 million gallons of oil.

Salmon were spawning, coming into the streams from Prince William Sound, and the streams were so full that you could actually grab the fish by hand. The bears were hand fishing so we made sure to watch from a distance and not get between them and their food.

We took a glacier cruise and we were initially disappointed not to see the glaciers calving. However, we got our money's worth when we saw sea lions, seals and a mother and calf humpback whale playing. Jill also held a piece of glacier ice and no one knows how old it was.




The next day we hiked the Valdez glacier and saw the icebergs in the glacier pond at the foot of the glacier


When we visited the visitor information center, we were invited to the free salmon bake which was held at the end of a week-long celebration, celebrating the rebuilding of the town.