Traveling Through Alaska 2026 Day 6

one of the smaller ones

Day 6...Today we traveled to Valdez on the Richardson Highway, AK4. On the way to Valdez is Keystone Canyon, a beautiful, scenic drive through waterfalls and canyon walls. Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail Falls are the two largest falls but in the spring there are many waterfalls in the canyon, some quite large. It started out as a cloudy day, so photos don't do it justice.

Bridal Veil Falls

Eldy is in front of Horsetail Falls...

There's a cool short railroad tunnel that never was finished that you can walk through if not flooded. The tunnel was hand cut into the solid rock of the Keystone Canyon. Nine companies fought to take advantage of the short route from the copper mines at Kennicott to the Valdez area but a feud interrupted progress and a right of way gunbattle was fought in 1903. The project was abruptly abandoned and the tunnel was never finished.

We are going to drive about 125 miles and stay at the Bear Paw Campground right across the street from the harbor. Price ranges from 55.00-75.00 a night depending on when in the season you arrive. The owner of the campground recently died and Sparky met the lady who is running the show currently, trying to keep things going. She was very spry, in her 80's! and doing a fabulous job. Things are up in the air whether this campground will stay open, someone will buy it out, family will run it, etc. but it's a wonderful campround, parking lot style with nice showers, laundry, and level sites with full hookups. Once we got there....Sparky explored the harbor....

Lots of cool sculptures around town...

Her favorite place for breakfast is a spot called The Potato. They serve a HUGE, amazing breakfast burrito. 

We stayed only one night as we wanted to get to Seward and there was very little fishing activity going on the day we were there. Town was very quiet and not busy at all, too early in the season to see very much. Sparky checked out the ferry option from Whittier to Seward, and although it would save a couple of hours of driving time, she decided she would rather do a whale/glacier watch tour than spend about 416.00 for our rig for 6-7 hours and a trip that would not stop for whales or other wildlife. So we decided to pass on the ferry. When you drive from Valdez to Seward, there is only one way to go, and that is back up north to Glenallen, then west over to Palmer, back south through Anchorage, and down the Parks Highway to Seward. 

That is a distance of 420 + miles, that's a long drive in the RV for us. But Eldy was thinking about doing it all in one day the next day.

fence near the ferry terminal

While we were in Valdez, we received messages from T-Mobile that we were about to incur roaming charges. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, T-Mobile does not offer service anywhere in Alaska, so we were using companion companies and towers while we were traveling, which we had not noticed. Sparky called the company and basically, they would be throttling us back, and suggested we use local wifi as much as possible. We were ok with that as we were not doing anything that required a high level of security, just basic local research and watching a show or two at night. So we kept on doing what we were doing and there was no change in our abilities to communicate.

Temperatures were in the thirties at night and high forties and low fifties during the day....Sunset was about 11:00 PM and sunrise was about 4:30 AM at this point. It did not bother us at all in the RV. We had very dark curtains on some of the windows and we managed to sleep just fine. 

In driving to Valdez and coming out of Valdez, you have to drive through Thompson Pass, a forbidding looking landscape with elevation at 2,678 feet. The last time we were through this pass two years ago, we encountered a blizzard! Today, it was a piece of cake--just a dreary day but lots of snow all around the area. The RV with the Ford engine handled the inclines and descents beautifullly. The drive is pretty spectacular, but driving in Alaska is pretty spectacular all the way around anyway!

Here you can see the frost heaves on the road below. It's like riding a baby rollercoaster, but it still makes Sparky's tummy do flipflops. The wiggles are where the frost has heaved up the road a little bit. Sometimes they are pretty big heaves, but most of the time little ones. You just have to slow down! Right, Eldo? (She thinks I take them a little too fast, explains E.)

frost heaves

Sparky and Eldo never tire of the amazing scenery....

And with that....we will see you tomorrow in Seward, Alaska.....