May 14th

Leaving Sourdough Camp ground, in Tok, Ak. Heading toward Valdez.

We decided we had to see the wrangell –  St.Elli mountian range, as it is in the same vacinity as the  Klune Mountain in Canada only on the otherside.

They were so awe inspiring, we had to see more of this range.

As we were leaving Tok, the alaska mountain range began to rise above the horizen.

As we continued on we began to see Mt Sanford rising proudly to the forefront. Mount Sanford , is a mountian that dominates this view of the Wrangell St Ellis  mountain Range. Mount Sanford is 16,237 feet and is 1 of Alaskas 10 highest peaks.

We find a turn out and it is a clear day. This gives us magnificant views.

We can see mount wrangell, clearly it is a volcano that i am told at times you can see a thin line of smoke coming from the top of the mountain.

We decided this is a great spot to stop for Coffee.

The trees in this area of alaska are called black Spruce, they are unusual in the way they grow. They are small and slow growing some are odd in shape. They are called survivor trees,because  they grow in tundra, boggs,and on top of permafrost (permently frozen ground).

They are common.in this part of alaska,and grow accross much of alaska and into Russia. They never get very tall, they can live to be over 100 yrs old, there wood is very dense and makes good firewood. The willow, white and black birch trees grow along side of them in the lower elevations.

The Wrangell St Ellis range and the Alaska mountain range provides us with magnificent views that are awe inspiring.

The sun was hitting the peaks at such a an angle you could hardly tell the peaks from the clouds.

As we decend down  Thompson pass we see many waterfalls falling for hundreds of feet from the melted snow on the top of the mountain. This area is called bridal veil canyon. The water falls look like many different bridal veils.

We get into Valdez. It is late, will get out and see the town tomorrow.

May 15th

We are still pretty tired with the time change of 3 hrs behind, Kansas and the long drive yesterday we do little today.

Out and about to see the town. Valdez is an active fishing, and shipping port  located in Prince William Sound. The oil pipelune ends here and thousands of gallons of oil are shipped out of here.

In 1964 the largest earthquake that has ever occured in north America happened in Alaska. At that time a Tisumoni followed causing a 200 foot wave to flow inland, washing away 1/2 of a mountain around Valdez.

Between the earthquake, and the distruction of the tisumoni, abd rhe muntain falling in,Valdez was wiped off of the map.

It has rebuilt further off shore and put in numerous safety measures to try to prevent another such occurance. Amazingly only 30 people lost their lives in this devastating occurance.

The town is surrounded by mountains with beautiful water falls. The air is crisp and so clean smelling.

We rest most of the day tomorrow we will go out on the water on a wildlife excursion.

May 16th

We are heaed out into Prince william sound to see wildlife. We are excited to see the whales, we have been told there are many and they are active.

It was a beautiful day, warm in the low 60’s bright sunshine.

We saw otters swimming , they lay on thir backs and look as if they do not have a care in the world.

We then came upon a hump back whale. They like to feed along the shore line. We would see him come up and spout out a spray of water take a breath and go back down. Then you would wait and wait and when you were just feeling like you could not hold your camera any longer in the same position ,here he would come up again.

I was not able to get a lot of good shots but did get a few fair ones. We saw mostly hump back whales and one grey whale who was laying on his side slapping his pectoral fin up and down on the water. At one point he dove down to the bottom and I was able to get a tail shot.

We also saw a lot of sea lions. Most were being lazy laying on the rocks along the shore sunning themselves. A few of them were playing in the water a little off shore.

These sea lions are Steller Sea Lions. The large males can get up to 1200 pounds and the females up to 650 pounds.

They eat at night mostly and lay around all day,sunning themselves. They make a loud sound something between a bellowing  and a growling.

We then headed toward  the Columbia Glacier. Long before we got close to the glacier we could see large chuncks of ice floating on the water. If you see a piece floating on the water you know you are only seeing 15 to20% the rest is inder water. The caption stayed clear of the larger pieces.

The chuncks of ice had beautiful colors. The turquoise color means it is very dense and has litle to no air in it. The white or frosted color has a lot of air and is less dense.

Then you can also see dark brown to black pieces where this glacier, (which you can think of  as ariver of ice because it is always moving),has drug the ice along the earth as it carves a path in the earths surface.

It was a lovely day out. Tomorrow I think we may try to get to Palmer.

Finn ,Janette