Since the weather was sunny and warm, Jeff suggested that we go to Valdez today. Valdez is the northernmost ice-free harbor and the end of the Alaska pipeline, which pumps all the oil from Prudhoe Bay down to Valdez. On the way down we went past several beautiful waterfalls - Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail Falls that were coming down mountains right beside the road.
Bridal Veil Falls:
Horsetail Falls:
Valdez was a small quiet town in a beautiful setting. We went to the museum that explained about the 1964 earthquake and how they moved the entire town as a result, ate lunch by a small pond, and walked along the small boat harbor and watched some fisherman cleaning their salmon catch.
Valdez Small Boat Harbor:
Afterward we drove back to Jeff and Beth's and enjoyed an evening of relaxing and reading.Day 7: Friday, June 29
We went to the park headquarters of the Wrangell-St. Elias (WSE) National Park and explored the small town of Copper Center. We spent several hours at the park headquarters - taking a guided tour, looking at the exhibits, seeing a short movie, etc. It was all very interesting. WSE is the US' largest national park, but has less than 75,000 visitors a year, likely because it is so remote. There are only two unpaved roads into the park. We had thought about driving the 60 miles one-way to go some old towns in the center of the park and see an old copper mine but decided it probably wouldn't be worth our time. And we weren't allowed to take our rental car on the gravel road. But we enjoyed experiencing WSE in the way we did - by viewing the beautiful mountains - some of the largest in North America.
Mount Drum:
I didn't really how lucky we were to have such good views of the mountains until we drove this way again when we left on Wednesday. It was cloudy and you couldn't tell there was a mountain there at all!We visited the museum at Copper Center and then were home for another relaxing evening of visiting and reading.
Day 8: Saturday, June 29
The farm workers (Jeff, Beth and Krista) had decided to take the weekend off, so we had a lazy day of relaxing. After everyone got up around 10:30, Beth made everyone pancakes, and Krista got on her first of several phone calls for the day.
We all decided to go explore the town of Chitina, which is literally at the end of the (paved) road - the Edgerton Highway. This used to be the real end of the road and the main connection into the Kennecott copper mine. When the mine closed in the late 30's, Chitina lost most of the its livelihood and residents. It still has a few houses and stores and is actually pretty busy this time of year because of the Copper River salmon fishing just up the road. An unpaved road continues into WSE and the Kennecott mine using the old railroad bed.
We stopped at Liberty Falls State Recreation area on the way but it was closed. We decided to walk around the closed sign to see the falls. There was major flooding in this area last year and it had wiped out the bridge across the creek here, that is why the area was closed. It was a nice place otherwise - very pretty waterfall and location.
We stopped at a Native Alaskan store and a garage sale along the way, and also at a gift shop in Chitina. Then we went out to the Copper River to watch salmon fishing. From what I learned, I guess the Copper River is one of the premiere places to catch salmon, and is seen as one of the premiere "brands" of salmon. (more about that later).
Some people fish by using dip nets and some use fishwheels. A fishwheel in action:
I personally think that fishwheels are the lazy man's way to fish. Once you build it, you just let it do its work. The current of the water turns the wheel, the salmon swim upstream into the basket and then dumped into a holding area. We didn't actually see any fish get caught in a fishwheel while we were there - the salmon must have been swimming on the other side of the river. We did see some people in a boat on the other side of the river dipnetting, and they were catching salmon like crazy.Most of Alaska's rivers look very dirty and they are. Very few "clear mountain streams". Most of the rivers are runoffs from glaciers which contain a lot of silt and small rocks, which make the water look very cloudy. If it was clear, it would be even easier to catch salmon. Just look down. The Copper River was VERY fast moving and cold. I would not have wanted to fall in.
In the evening, we all went out to eat at the Copper Center Roadhouse, building built during the Gold Rush of the early 1900's. A small dining room but very good food and lots of it!
Day 9: Sunday, July 1
Another lazy day around the farm. I braved the mosquitoes and spent an hour outside on the deck having some quiet time and doing devotions. It was a little cool because of some rain the night before. After lunch we went for a walk around the property so Jeff and Beth could show us some of the places they had been talking about. It is very easy to get turned around if you aren't familiar with the place! We saw evidence of moose (2 big piles of ____) but no actual moose. I don't have these scenery pictures with me right now, maybe I will post them later (if I remember!)
Day 10: Monday, July 2
We spent the morning packing up and getting ready to leave. We ate lunch with Jeff, Beth and Krista and then hit the road about 1:30 for the drive back to Anchorage. The beautiful drive that we had on the way out was much less beautiful this time around because of the clouds and drizzle. We arrived back at Jason and Heather's about 7:00pm and they left for the airport at 8:30pm to go to Indiana and Iowa for several weeks. They had another family staying at their house who were going to be housesitting while they were gone - Joe and Sandy someone. Sandy knew Cheryl Mast so I knew it was a small world!!! Denise and I took long-anticipated showers, checked our email, and went to bed.
Day 11: Tuesday, July 3
We got up early to get to the airport in time for our flight to Seattle. We flew Anchorage to Seattle and then Seattle to Bellingham, WA, where we were picked up by our cousin, John Risser. He took us to his house and we saw his wife Brenda and kids Sam and Annika, who we hadn't seen since Eric's wedding last June. We enjoyed supper with them on their deck and talked most of the evening. We also explored their beautifully landscaped yard and picked strawberries, red raspberries, and snap peas out of their yard/garden.
That's all for now! I will post pictures of our time in Bellingham this weekend.
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