Valdez, AK Day 1

Monday, July 31, 2017

Yea! We arrived in Valdez.

This is our view from the back of our home for the next 6 nights. The tide is out right now.  When it comes in the whole area in the foreground is water filled.

As soon as we got set up we headed out to do some exploring. 

 This was in town across the street from the Safeway. The plague says "Trail of the Whispering Giants". The Trail of the Whispering Giants is a collection of sculptures by Hungarian-born artist Peter Wolf Toth. The sculptures range in height from 20 to 40 feet, and are between 8 and 10 feet (2.4 and 3.0 m) in diameter. Currently there are 74 Whispering Giants, with at least one in each of the 50 US states, as well as in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, and one in Hungary. 

This is one of several long glacial waterfalls that can be seen around town.

On Good Friday, March 27, 1964, 45 miles from Valdez, a M9.2 earthquake hit Alaska.  This resulted in a tsunami that flooded and destroyed Valdez's original town site.

Next we headed for Dayville Rd which was described as a very popular drive with the prospects of seeing several kinds of wildlife.

The first thing we saw was the salmon spawning up this Solomon Creek. See the large salmon near the rock? He's made it up stream.

Here are probably thousands of salmon trying to make it upstream.

Above and below show the salmon jumping to get through this gate.

This was at low tide around 3:30pm.  I wanted to come back at high tide and see if it looked different.

Wow, nothing for the fish to have to jump up and over.

The high tide also brought in sea lions.  It was interesting to watch. When one of the sea lions went underwater to get fish to eat, you could see scores of salmon suddenly swim away from the sea lion.  It would create almost a wall of fish.

This is Solomon Creek farther upstream.  Beautiful!!

I know this is a really bad picture but it is the only one we have.  The fog was starting to get thicker and the camera would not focus. (sort of like the Sasquatch photos, Ha!)  On our way back, we saw this bear at a creek fishing. After he ate a fish he started wandering around. 
Another wonderfully blessed day!