Palmer and Valdez

7/24/17

We left the Seward campground around 9:30, and headed back on the same road to Anchorage.  We stopped in Anchorage at Costco for gas, then headed for Palmer.   The weather did not cooperate with us.  The low-hanging clouds and fog kept up from seeing the big mountains on the way in.  Arrived in Mt. View campground in Palmer around 2:00.  Settled in and visited with some of the group.  I read and finished my second book.  According to the Palmer information, it looked like about 3 streets wide and not much else.  We decided to do our touring tomorrow.

7/25/17

Slept in and took our time in the morning as we had the whole day to ourselves.  Around 10:00, Tom and I took off in the Jeep to the Visitor Center in Palmer.  We watched a movie all about the ‘colonists’ who settled the town of Palmer.  It was so interesting that we stayed there in front of the movie (called ‘Alaska Far Away’) for over an hour.  So here is a little history for my blog…

                        In 1935, the U.S. Government decided that more of Alaska needed to be colonized, and that Alaska specifically needed farmers for food.  After all, Secretary of State, Seward, bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867 (soon after the Civil War), but the only people living there were mostly miners, hunters, and fur traders.  In order to attract families, a plan was put together to offer colonists a 40 acre plot of land and a house, in return, the government wanted the farmers to farm the land the eventually pay back the government (I am simplifying this for brevity).   They wanted young families who were healthy and comfortable with cold climates.  The offer went out primarily to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  The government chose the Matanuska Valley in Alaska for farming purposes (Palmer is north of Anchorage, on the Matanuska River, which flows into the Cook Inlet).  Since many families were still suffering through the end of the Great Depression in 1935, the offer looked pretty good, so 200 families signed up.

                        The newspapers picked up on the story of these ‘colonists’ and sent reporters and cameramen to cover the story.  The colonists went by rail from their homes in the northern states of the U.S. to San Francisco.  While on the trains, they were uncomfortable because they had no beds.  They had to sleep sitting up in the rail cars.  However, they were treated as celebrities, and many of them had never had so much food.  In San Francisco, they changed trains for the trip north to Alaska.  When they arrived in Palmer in April, the Army Corp of Engineers built a tent city for them, with 200 tents as temporary housing.  Some of the colonists chose to stay in the rail cars for warmth rather than move into tents.

                        It was a near-impossible project to build 200 homes and have them finished before the snows came.  More men from nearby towns were called in to help.  Still, the last of the houses were not finished until Christmas.  In the meantime, the colonists had to brave the extreme weather, the mosquitoes in June and July, dirty conditions, and disease.  Poliomyelitus and measles took many of the youngest childrens’ lives.  One third of the colonists quit and went back home in the first year; so the government put the offer out for replacements, and got them.  In the end, Palmer survived and became an agricultural area.  By 1979, only 20% of the original colonists still lived in Alaska.

After touring the rest of the Visitor Center, we went to the Musk Ox Farm.  It was still foggy and rainy, so we did not go out to the yards to see the Musk Ox – besides, they are not the most beautiful animal you have ever seen. 

This is a Musk Ox

The big attraction for me was the yarn (Qiviut) that they made from the animals’ undercoat.  We saw hand-knitted items made by the Oomingmak Musk Ox Co-op natives in Anchorage that were beautiful and ooh-so-soft (felt like cashmere), but way too expensive.  I thought they might have a larger inventory and cheaper prices at the Musk Ox Farm.  I was wrong.  The smallest knitted piece was a 2” narrow headband, and it was $189!

Musk Ox knitted patterns

 We went back at the RV, and we had a pot luck dinner, organized by Trish (my shopping buddy).  The food was great and everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

7/26/17

Today was a travel day, and a long drive to boot (including quite a bit of construction) – about 8 hours to Valdez.  The canyons and rivers were beautiful, but we hit a lot of fog.  We couldn’t see the big mountains of the Wrangell-Elias National Park.  We stopped at the Visitor Center of the Park and learned a lot about this National Park.  It is the largest National Park in the U.S., and second largest in the world – second only to a park in Greenland.  Wrangell-Elias National Park is 6 times bigger than Yellowstone, has 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America, and more glaciers than anywhere else in North America.  A lot of statistics for a park that is so large, it is hard to imagine.  We watched a very well-done movie about the park (that is where I got all my statistics).  
 

From the National Park Visitor Center to Valdez, we saw glaciers and waterfalls – spectacular scenery.  Here are some of my pictures. 

Glaciers on the road to Valdez

Glaciers and Riverbeds

Coming to the Worthington Glacier

The Worthington Glacier

Bridal Falls

Horsetail Falls

We landed at Bear Paw RV Park around 4:00.  We were covered in road dirt again, so Tom rinsed the RV and car off before he quit for a nap.  I fixed dinner and then played 3 games of cribbage with Trish.

7/27/17

Today we have the day to ourselves.  Tom and I had a slow morning, and left in the Jeep around 10:00 to see Valdez.  We went to the Visitor Center and got a good map for the city and information on attractions.  We headed to the Valdez Museum in town.  There we saw a 1905 Fire Engine, and an 1886 hand-pumped fire engine purchased by the City of Valdez in 1902 (when Valdez was only three years old).   Both have been beautifully restored. 

1905Fire Engine
 

1886 Hand-pumped Fire Engine

In March of 1964, Valdez was the center of a massive earthquake which registered 9.2 on the Richter Scale and shook for 5 minutes.  It destroyed the town.  Most of the pictures and information about the quake were located in a different museum.  We will go to it next.

In March of 1989, Valdez was devastated for the second time when the Exxon Valdez went aground while leaving the harbor, spilling 11 million gallons of oil.  The oil spread south and west covering a large portion of Prince William Sound and the coastline to the southwest.  Residue of the oil spill still exists. Here is a picture of how the oil spill spread. 

The spill site is in the upper right, and spread south and west across the coastlines

Next, we drove to the second Valdez Museum.  This building housed primarily pictures and memorabilia from the 1964 earthquake. When two continental plates collided and one slid under the other, it triggered a 9.2 earthquake – largest ever recorded in North America.  The quake destroyed the docks and the land liquefied and dropped by 9 feet.  The worst of it for the people was that it lasted 5 minutes.  Most of the buildings were destroyed, and 33 people who were in the harbor area all died, including one family of 5.  After the quake, the leaders of the town had geology studies done and found that the town was built in an area of glacial silt which is very unstable.  The decision was made to move the town to an area of bedrock about 4 miles north.  The land for the new town was granted from two landowners, Mr. Meals and Mr. Hazelet.  They also drew up a new layout for all the streets and buildings. 

The job of moving an entire town was almost impossible, but they did it.  A few of the buildings that could be salvaged were transported by truck.  All else were rebuilt.  After the new town was moved and the people were relocated, they went back to the old town and burned all remaining structures and let the wilderness take over.  Today, Valdez is thriving and is a major deep water harbor that does not freeze over in the winter.  Their average temperature in winter (Dec/Jan) is 22 degrees.  That is why Valdez gets more snow than anywhere else.  They get about 340" of snow in the winter because it is warm enough to snow.  In Fairbanks, where it is much colder (as cold as -70 degrees), the snow falls like ash and blows away because it is so dry.

Our next stop was the fish hatchery.  We were told that there are often bears feeding on the fish, so we went to see the bears.  We went to the Meir (which is a metal barrier which diverts the fish to the fish hatchery, rather than letting them swim upstream) and watched the fish trying to swim past the Meir.  Many of them died trying.  Here are two pictures of the Meir.  We waited and watched, but no bears. 

thousands of salmon at the fish hatchery

fish trying to swim over the Meir

On the way back to the RV, we stopped at the site of Old Valdez.  There we could see remaining foundations and markers where some of the buildings stood,  including the home of William Egan, the first Governor of Alaska.  There was a marker where the Post Office stood (which was only 2 years old when the quake destroyed it), and a memorial to the people who died that day. 

The tour leaders held a meeting about our boat trip tomorrow and served up sloppy Joes for dinner.  They were very good.  We made plans to meet up with Trish and Bev at 8:45 in the morning.

7/28/17

We left the campground with Trish and Bev at 8:45 and walked across the street to the harbor.  We waited with our group until 9:30 boarding time.  Everyone got on the boat – our 43 along with another 102 people.  The boat holds 150, so it was certainly full.  We left the port of Valdez and went through the Valdez Narrows, then out into Prince William Sound.  The weather did not cooperate with us AGAIN.  The port was fogged in and it rained.  Although the captain explained to us that the surrounding high cliffs, vegetation, birds, and animals were all there, we couldn’t see anything.  As we left the Valdez Narrows, the skies began to clear and the fog lifted so we could at least see the cliffs on either sides of the boat.

The first sight was Anderson Falls – the waterfalls everywhere are fed by the melting glaciers.  

Anderson Falls

Then we passed by many islands, saw many birds, and sea otters, and headed to the Meares Glacier.  As we approached the glacier, there was ice in the water everywhere.   It floated and rolled over and over.  Some of the ice was very blue and some of it included ground up rock.  Here are pictures of ice in the water.

Ice from the Meares Glacier

Two icebergs - notice the blue color

 As we approached the glacier, the temperature dropped and we saw it peeking around a corner of land;   I took these pictures off the outside deck, where it was about 35 degrees and raining.  The blue color of the ice comes from compressed snow and sunlight. 

Meares Glacier peeking around the corner

then we turned the corner and there it was!

And here is the Meares Glacier

This is from the boat deck

To give you some perspective on its size

A close up of the top of the ice - It is so blue!

As we turned around to head back, we saw harbor seals sitting on the ice.  They do that to avoid the predators in the water, mainly Orcas.

Seals on the Ice

Seals in front of the glacier

And here is a beautiful bald eagle at the top of a dead tree.

Bald Eagle

On the way back to harbor, and we came upon a lot of sea lions, all having a great time. 

Sea Lions on the rocks

Lots of Sea Lions

And on the next beach, more sea lions

We finally arrived  back in harbor at 7:30.  By the time we got back to the RV, the dogs had been locked up for 11 hours, and we were worried about them.  But, when be got there, both dogs were fine and very happy to see us.  We took them out right away, then loaded them in the Jeep and drove to the fish hatchery to see the fish ladders.  When we got there, there were 4 very large seas lions in the Meir area just sitting there, waiting for their dinner.  There were literally thousands of salmon in the water.  I followed the ladders up to the hatchery (29 steps in the ladder), and the poor salmon looked so tired – I really felt sorry for them.  But, this was nature working normally – just a little sad.

We came home and took the dogs with us to the ice cream stand along with Trish and Bev.  We all got ice creams, and Bev treated – even the dogs.  We are back home now, and I still do not have any internet, so this blog will  have to wait until I get a connection.  It was a very long day today, and tomorrow is another long drive (about 8 hours), so off to bed.  Tomorrow we drive back to Tok, Alaska for one night.