After Anchorage, we headed out the Glenn Highway to the Richardson highway. The drive was a little rough, but beautiful. We are getting used to this particular combination. Difficult but totally worth it. We stopped off a couple of times just so we could take it all in. The first thing we came across was the Matanuska Glacier. After so many glaciers, I'm still amazed that they can be different. How is that possible?
And how many peaceful lakes can you stop by and not marvel at the beauty? We continue to be awed. Even Mona likes to take a moment to reflect.
We arrived in Valdez, Alaska and caught up with our group. At least for one day. We had a chance to visit a little and go to the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive. The museum is a great history of Valdez, it's people, the pipeline and the oil spill. They even have a traveling exhibit of art made from found objects. Notice everyone checking out one of the exhibits. Some fascinating stuff.
There is a separate museum that has an exhibit titled Remembering Old Valdez. This museum has an excellent video that documents Valdez from it's beginning as a gateway to the Klondike gold fields to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the town on Good Friday in 1964. The people featured in the film told their stories of that day. Some lost loved ones and some just barely survived. Only one thought it was an earthquake. The others thought it was an explosion of a volcano or a bomb dropped on Anchorage. I had to remember it was still the Cold War.
The salmon provide food for many species of animal in the bay. We watched sea lions stuffing themselves with fish, throwing the extra pieces away. The extra was grabbed by the sea gulls and bald eagles. The birds were everywhere.
We thought it could not get any better but we were wrong. In the middle of watching the sea lions, we noticed a small grizzly bear on the rocks coming down to do some fishing. We watched from far away. We watched several people taking pictures from the bank, not 30 feet away from him. Not good, we thought. Bob remarked that he was sorry that he had not brought his long lens. It was as if the bear heard us, since he started working his way in our direction. Before long, we were those people who were too close to the grizzly bear. Too close for comfort. A gentlemen from the hatchery moved everyone toward the fish ladder and away from the bear. A good thing to be sure.
We watched as the bear worked his way toward us, and caught him on camera as he fished his heart out. We had read that bears in situations where there was plenty of food, could just eat the more nutritious parts and discard the rest. Of course the birds were waiting. Awesome day!!
Next day, we watched our group move on. We had decided to stay a couple of days so Craig could fish, and then we would catch them as they headed to Watson Lake to join the Cassiar Highway. So sad.
We spent the next two days resting, fishing and visiting the remaining museums. Craig was having a blast, catching 5 salmon his first day and 6 his second. We spent a considerable amount of time cleaning them and removing the bones. My eyebrow tweezers will never be the same.
I wandered around town. On my wander, I came upon a couple singing songs about how much Jesus loves us. I stopped to listen and said a prayer of thanks for my adventure and my friends.
Next I stopped at the Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum to see one of the largest collections of Native Alaskan art and artifacts. And it was HUGE. All crammed into a room the size of a 3 car garage. There were hunting implements, clothes, toys, beadwork, furniture and a collection of mounts that would rival a Cabbelas. This was one of the largest moose I've seen. There were 2 grizzlies, 3 wolves, mountain sheep and goats, a bison, various small game and TWO polar bears. See what I mean?
On to the Kennecott Mine.
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