Catch of the Day, Kayaking & S’mores: Valdez, Alaska

One of the most awesome things about driving Alaska in an RV is that you just keep running into amazing vista after amazing vista. You think you can’t see anything more beautiful than the last place you saw, and then you do. The drive to Valdez is probably the most amazing and beautiful drive I think I have been on. Your driving along and suddenly a waterfall that falls all the way from a glacier at the top of a mountain down to the base, is smack in front of you.

Then the next thing you know there is a amazing glacier in front of you.

Then another tall waterfall.

And then a pond with a beaver lodge in it.

And then of course when driving Alaska, you also experience this…..

Valdez was definitely a favorite for me. The drive there started it off in an amazing way. We started our stay in Valdez at Allison Point Campground. Allison Point is basically a series of parking areas where you can camp spread out along the road around Allison Point. Right across the road you see in the picture below is the water. It is actually a fairly nice place. The traffic on the road is normally light, except for big trucks occasionally going down to the Valdez Marine Terminal for the Alaska oil pipeline at the end of the road. Traffic was heaviest during a shift change at the terminal. So why would we choose to camp by a road?

The Traveler’s Guide to Alaskan Camping by Mike & Terri Church says the following about Allison Point–“This campground’s reason for being is salmon fishing. Either pink or silver salmon can be caught from the shore during their respective runs.” So, of course, we had to go here because Dad loves fishing. It was amazing how many salmon were across that road and right off the shore. Mike and Dad sat there and caught salmon over and over again. Most of them were pinks and we had a lot of fish already so they would just catch and release them. Dad caught two silvers and he kept those. They also experience catching what Mike came to call “zombie” fish. These were salmon that had already spawned and were so far gone they didn’t fight at all and you could see them floating along and barely swimming. What and interesting phenomena of fish gathering, spawning and then dying.

There were other fish here too. Dad caught a fish like the ones he had caught a whole bunch of when we were staying at Deep Creek State Park on the Kenai Peninsula. We’re not sure what kind of fish it was so we threw it back. If anyone knows their fish and can tell me what kind this is, please leave a comment. Thanks.

We weren’t the only species fishing for salmon here. We saw several sea otters and several sea lions or seals. This sea lion caught the fish and then came up quickly with the fish and then he would whack the fish on the water or throw it. We think it was to stun the fish–just like we do after catching a fish.

We had an encounter with another species intent on having salmon for their dinner–black bears. One evening, Mike and I were walking down to throw our trash into the bear proof dumpsters. I heard something snapping in the trees. I looked toward the sound and saw two baby bears up a tree and no sign of where mama bear was. The baby bears were in the process of coming down from the tree and they scampered up the hill quickly. Well, we dumped our trash as quick as we could and moved out of the area as quickly as possible, since we didn’t know where mama bear was. That was really cool to see those two baby bears up that tree. What an experience!! And of course, no camera!!!

The reason there are so many salmon in this area is because of the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery which sends hundreds of thousands of pink salmon and silver salmon to the ocean every year. So every year, thousands of those fish return to the hatchery to spawn. It is quite a sight to see at the hatchery. You hear it before you see it. It is a loud cacophony of rushing water, splashing from fish propelling themselves upstream and hundreds of sea gulls. There are dead rotting fish and thousands of fish at the mouth of the hatchery stream Solomon Gulch and trying to make it up the fish ladder. The hatchery information signs said that over 30,000 fish make it back up the fish ladder into the hatchery every day. I believe it.

We attended church in Valdez and this is when a tender mercy for me occurred. I have chronic back and neck pain and so I regularly go to a chiropractor when I am at home. However, I had been away for quite a while and I was having quite a lot of pain. One of the speakers at church just happened to mention he was a chiropractor. That was a blessing straight from heaven for me. After the meeting I asked if I could come in for an adjustment and he gave me his office number. I called and got in on Monday afternoon for an adjustment. His name is Dr. Williams at the Arctic Chiropractic and Massage Therapy. Dr. Williams gave me the best adjustment I think I have ever had. I had no pain anywhere when he was finished. If I am ever in Valdez again, I will go to Dr. Williams for another adjustment. I wish I lived here or he practiced in Salt Lake.

After fishing for a few days, we moved our camp out to the Valdez Glacier Park. We were able to boondock here so it cost us nothing. We camped a few hundred yards from the glacial lake with floating icebergs in it. It was substantially colder than Allison Point only a few miles away due to the glacier.

Dad caught a different species here.

I was so excited to get here because every since I saw youtube videos of people paddleboarding and kayaking on the Valdez Glacier Lake, I have wanted to do that. It seemed so cool to kayak right up to one of these huge chunks of ice. So, Mike and I did another thing on the bucket list. We kayaked around the icebergs. It was awesome to see the size of these floating pieces of glacial ice. There were a lot of cool shapes, sizes and that blue ice was amazing. One of the coolest icebergs had a series of blue caves (see pictures below). Then we kayaked all the way over to the glacier face. It was huge. Then we decided to kayak to the other side of the lake and check out a glacial stream that was flowing into the lake from another glacier. We got out of the kayak and hiked over to the stream. The stream was beautiful and loud and had several branches to it. It was also interesting to look back to the iceberg field from the backside. Then back to shore after a couple of hours of exploring. Mike was really sore by then because he is really not flexible. When he kayaks it feels like he is constantly doing crunches. After getting back to shore, Mike went and talked is mom and dad into coming out for a kayak trip through the icebergs. I was their tour guide and took both of them out for about 30 minutes each. It was fun! What an amazing experience (I know, I said it again)!! It definitely lived up to being a bucket list item.

That evening we were able to have a fire. We haven’t been able to have fires very often because the fire danger has been so high, so this was a real treat. I love campfires. And when you have a campfire you have to roast some marshmallows and make some s’mores. I also like to roast fresh pineapple. It is awesome!!! The perfect ending to a perfect day!