Valdez

Valdez's claim to fame today is as the terminus of the Alaska pipeline. There are boat tours here to the glaciers on Prince William Sound, however having done a tour in Seward, I stuck to land here. The town itself is new and unremarkable. The original town site was a small port and destroyed in the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. As such, there are no historic structures. The setting is supposed to be picturesque and have some of the world's tallest coastal mountains but the clouds never lifted while I was there so I can't say what the scenery is like.

The most interesting attraction is the salmon hatchery. The salmon swim upstream to spawn which brings bears and eagles. I saw a black bear fishing salmon out of the river but unfortunately by the time I got my camera out, he'd finished his meal and moved on.