Valdez

 



(1)On the way to Valdez, we stopped at the Worthington Glacier.  People can go right up to the glacier if they are willing to ignore assorted warning signs that cautioned about steep trail, unsorted glacial till, eroded trail.  Without my trusty trekking poles, I decided to let caution rule, but I was more than jealous when one fellow came back with some glacial ice. From the scrambled order of photos, obviously, I haven't got the skills in place to get photos and text where I want it.   

 

 

(2) Meares Glacier.  the boat was able to go quite close to the Meares Glacier.  It talks!  Creaks, groan, cracks.  A few chunks of ice calved off and made an enormous booming sound.  I can only imagine the boom a big iceberg would make.  This glacier is one of the two that is advancing.  All other glaciers are in retreat.  We saw trees on both sides of the glacier that are slowly but inexorably being plowed over, they are bent or knocked down. 

 



(3)The Old Salt.  We are on the Stan Stephens all day cruise to the Meare Glacier. It is a beautiful day and we are rewarded with many sightings of animals and glaciers: A raft of sea otters including a mother with her cub riding on her belly; Many sea lions climbing up on rocky shore. Mostly it's a bachelor colony; Eagles in the trees and one on a sand bar with many gulls; Puffins (2 species) and Jaegers; Seals; Salmon jumping.  We also saw the Colombia Glacier and much icebergs of the smallish variety.



(4)The day before the cruise, we checked into the campground and did a quick tour of the pipeline terminal and the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery.  Thousands of salmon returning to the hatchery to spawn churn the water.  It frustrating to see so many fish and know that so very few will get to spawn which is not such a happy event at a fish hatchery.  Glad they do not have pre knowledge of the rest, they are blindly operating on hormonal changes the urge to return their original stream after 5 years in the ocean.  It is such an arduous journey for Pacific Salmon, given the rigors of the mountain streams, that they get only one chance to spawn.  Atlantic salmon can go upstream more than one year.