We took our time driving from Chitna to Valdez.  After looking at all the possibilities we decided to stay ion town at a very small RV park called Chena.  It appealed to us because it had only ten sites and the Churches did say the owners were very helpful.  On our way in we drove by half the other places and our choice was confirmed.  Instead of 160 sites on a sea of gravel Chena has just eh ten sites on a pond of gravel.  Gravel makes sense here as it does not become mud or snad to track into the coach and water drains right through it, no standing puddles to breed mosquitoes, there are enough of them as it is.

The drive took us over Thompson Pass at 2,800 feet.  It does not seem very high, but it is clear the weather in the pass can be fearsome.  We have been told by locals that the plow crews use GPS to guide them through the pass in storms!  We came over it in clear weather.  We passed the turn off for the old town site which was devastated in the earthquake of 1964 and continued into the town that was rebuilt and has grown with the routing of the Alyeska Pipeline to the port.  It is a great fishery and we have seen halibut over five feet long hanging from the catch racks of the charter companies.  I bought some an grilled it.  I am reminded of Talkeetna, 1997, my most memorable halibut meal, eaten at a picnic table on the curb there. 

We took a cruise with Stan Stephens to Meade Glacier which included poking in as close as we could get to Columbia and Shoup glaciers and some whale watching and sea otter watching and Dall Porpoise watching and bald eagles and puffin, both horned and tufted and bear watching.  We saw one bear swim across from the mainland to an island as we were traversing the passage.  Stan said he had not seen a bear take that long a swim in his time here – he is in his 70’s and has been guiding in Alaska 50 years.  Here are some pictures from the day trip:

 

Plans to go sea kayaking have been placed on hold, not enough people want to take the trip we want to take for it to go. We decided to take a “domestic day.”  Many chores great and small have piled up.  Carol did laundry while I washed the coach down to remove the sand and road dirt from our drive over TOW and down to Chitna.  Our neighbor works at the local NAPA store and he located a replacement for the oil filler cap I left back in the Yukon someplace.  We still have piles of dust and grit in our storage bins, but that will just have to accumulate until we get on paved roads in the lower 48.  We did wander around the harbor area and walked into Anadyr Sea kayaking.  We had not walked in there before.  they offer a kayak trip to Valdez Glacier which involves a four or five mile drive rather than a two our boat ride to the kayaking site.  WE sgned up for the next day.

We met Heather, the guide, and David and Joanie whose son works on a fishing boat in Valdez for the summer.  The five of us set out for Valdez Glacier with full coverage rain gear over long johns and fleece for warmth along with PFDs (Personal Flotation Device) for safety.  We put into the water with the hope of entering an ice cave or two, walking on the glacier and maybe seeing some other interesting feature.  As with wild life viewing there can be no promises since the features of the glacier change from  day to day as the weather and glacial movements shift things around.  Rather than give you a blow by blow here are a selection of pictures from the day:

And there you have two days in Valdez with more to come.