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.....

Day 5 in Valdez

We arrived in Valdez after a spectacular drive to get there. (See previous post about the two major waterfalls in Keystone Canyon). We picked Bear Paw RV Park and were very happy we did. Forty dollars a night right in the heart of Valdez with the harbor right across the street. The staff was super friendly, the sites were reasonably spaced apart even though it's basically a parking lot, and they offer plenty of services. They have TWO parks in one...their second park is right near the first one, and it's for adults only. The second park was for much bigger rigs when we pulled in. The main park has crushed gravel, very level sites. They have private restrooms, a laundromat, a dump station, cable TV, Wi-fi and hot, unmetered showers. The adults only second park is their waterfront park on Prince William Sound, with larger and more wooded sites.

Stellar's Jay-courtesy of Fish and Wildlife Service

We loved Bear Paw. Saw a bald eagle who visits daily in a tree just outside the office. Saw a Stellar's Jay while we were there in the park as well. Beautiful navy and royal blue jay....

Plenty of things to see and do in Valdez (Val-deez) with some great places to eat as well. Valdez has FIVE glaciers in the area that you can see and visit. One of the things Sparky wanted to do was take a cruise around the Prince William Sound with Captain Fred of the LuluBelle. She had read reviews of the two main glacier/wildlife cruises before leaving home. One was called the Stan Stephens glacier/wildlife cruise, and the other one was called LuluBelle Tours . Either one is spectacular, but the LuluBelle is a smaller boat and we thought the experience would be better with not such a big crowd on board. Not only that, but the Stan Stephens appears to have to run on a much tighter schedule and not have quite the flexibility of staying in the area if wildlife is being spotted. Since we were there early in the season, we had no trouble booking our tickets the day before the cruise. And we chose the LuluBelle. It's a posh touring vessel. Oriental rugs inside the stateroom and in the captain's cabin, teak and mahogany woodwork throughout, it's gorgeous. 


Captain Fred has been running these tours for 39 years and he really knows where to go and how long to hang out. We saw EVERYTHING that the opening page of the website talks about. We were exceptionally lucky the day we went. Did we see wildlife? Is the pope Catholic? Does a bear shit in the woods? Oh, YEAH! 

Harbor seals? Check.

Bald eagles? Check.

Stellar sea lions? Check. One big fat mama. Check.

Go into a rocky cave in the boat (!) and bang your head on the rocks if you don't watch out? Check. He actually went part way into the tunnel and the rocks were right over your head! He kept saying, "Want to get closer?" Uh, ok....

Sea otters? Check. Up close and personal? Check.

Dall porpoise? Check. They look like mini orca whales. They swam and played under and around the bow of the boat. They were so fast! Sparky has a video of them on YouTube if you'd like to see them in action. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1inBYRCSMw

AND...tada...the whales...we saw several....AND Sparky caught the best shot of all, one on her bucket list...the tail end.

Captain Fred is terrific. He's a non-stop talker pretty much for the whole cruise, full of interesting facts and history. We learned a LOT about the wildlife and the area. We enjoyed his narrative very much. 
The Columbia Glacier was fantastic! We did not see much calving, however. Sometimes, there are huge chunks as big as houses cracking and falling off the front of the glacier, but not this time. It was still spectacular. You could hear booming and cracking, it just wasn't falling much today.....

The fresh air was too much for some, and people were in and out of the inside cabin, in and out. Eventually, some just had enough of the fresh cold air which was in the 30's by the time we got to the Columbia Glacier and sacked out on the way back. 

We had a marvelous time because we dressed really warmly, lol....you would be miserable if you don't wear appropriate clothing! Think dead of winter clothing and you'll be fine for whatever the weather brings.  We absolutely loved this tour. We would go back and do it again in a heartbeat. We'll tell you about where we ate while we were in Valdez next time.....See you soon!