A ferry Ride to Valdez, a Goat Trail Hike and a Fish Hatchery Tour

 

Our ferry ride arrives in Whittier on a fine Saturday.

Cruising through the Prince William sound.

Departing the Port of Whittier.

The end terminal of the Alaskan Pipeline in Valdez.

Bridal Veil Falls, Valdez

An interesting story and an excellent hike. This trail was built by the army in 1898 during the Gold Rush as an alternative to hiking over the Valdez Glacier to reach the interior. How these settlers carried all their gear over this trail is beyond me.

Bridal Falls from a little elevation.

A long drop.

                                                A glacial flow.

A sometimes hidden trail.

The end of the trail. There is a collapsed bridge to reach the other side back in 1898. No longer passable.

A fascinating salmon hatchery. The Sea of Alaska on the top side of the fish weir (elevated gate) where salmon live the last year of their life then return to freshwater, on the bottom side of the weir, to spawn and die.

The height is adjusted for the tide. Salmon swim aggressively upstream (natural to them) into the freshwater to spawn. Depending on the type of salmon (silver or coho) they spend 1-2 years living in freshwater pens before being released into the saltwater. They return here one year later to spawn and then die.

A feast for the walrusses and bears.

Interesting videos of salmon swimming upstream and providing a feast for predators.

                                                Bridal Veil Falls.

The end of the Goat Hike. It used to extend way into the interior but a bridge on this section collapsed in 2006. The collapsed section is shown in this video.

From One End of the Road to the other on the Kenai Peninsula.

 

Homer is on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula from Seward. The Cook Inlet can be navigated to Anchorage.

A view of the Homer Spit coming into town.

A pretty beach campsite.

A memorial for those lost at sea.

I normally don't stay in crowded private campgrounds but the location was hard to pass up. 

Sunset at 11.

My morning view from Belle's upper berth.

A donut glacier!

Almost every cast brought in a flounder.

It's 11pm.

I left Homer and found Ptarmigan Lake Trail Campground in the Chugach National Forest. A self-pay campground that is only $10 for seniors with my National Parks Senior Pass. I have saved so much money with my lifetime pass that only cost me $10 in 2015. Ptarmigan is a much quieter place since the crowded campgrounds in Seward and Homer. But heavy bear country. I keep bear spray on me everywhere, even in the van when the doors are open, since seeing the grizzly in Denali. Seward and Homer were crowded with RVs but the locations were absolutely beautiful.

Very interesting history reads.

What a woman! They were tough.

The 7.1-mile trail started out pretty easy...

...but then the trail narrowed and started an elevation gain.

After about 2 miles the trail became very rutted and hilly. I'm pretty new to mountain biking and since I didn't want to break my bike or more likely myself I turned around. 

Another great campsite in Chugach National Forest.

The federal government and the state of Alaska sure spend a lot of dollars on recreation in Alaska. Chugach National Forest.

Williwaw Campground has two glaciers behind it and several glacial ponds being fed by the melting ice.

The bike and hiking trails are built over many glacial streams feeding the ponds.

Belle Jr. really likes this rest stop.

I have never seen a better-looking or built picnic table. I talked to a park ranger and he said that all the state parks are getting these. 

This is a piece of art. Magnificient!

  

Portage Glacier. I spent many winters living on or next to glaciers at the South Pole and Palmer Station in Antarctica (see earlier posts from 2020 and earlier). I find them a fascinating part of nature. The South Pole glacier on the polar plateau is two miles thick! In a few thousand years the current Amundson-Scott South Pole Station will calve into the Southern Ocean.

I will be taking the ferry from Whittier, Alaska to Valdez. To reach Whittier you travel through this 2.5 mile tunnel that is one lane for both vehicles and trains. It was built during WWII as Whittier has a deep water ice-free port that was used to send supplies to protect Alaska during WWII. This is the entrance. The passage is interval timed for inbound and outbound traffic which includes trains. It's so crazy driving on the modified train tracks! 

After WWII the Port of Whittier was abandoned but the cold war started and brought the port back into action. At that time this housing project was where workers lived. 

The Port of Whittier, Alaska.

Another cool glacier.

One more night in another Chugach National Forest campground which is the second largest national forest in the United States. The largest is Tongass National Forest in Alaska which contains Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Tongass is about the same size as West Virginia.

The Port of Whittier to Valdez Ferry. The western gateway to Prince William Sound.