A reborn city, sparkling in the sun

The name was already familiar to both of us: Valdez. Unfortunately, its fame comes from a pretty dramatic event: the 1989 oil spill of the Exxon-Valdez, one of the biggest ecological catastrophy of its kind. Before that, the original town of Valdez was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake, a 4 minute madness that scored 9.2 on the Richter scale and just destroyed everything. Today, Valdez is standing again and still the terminal of the 800-mile Trans-Alaskan pipeline. We were not sure what to expect heading down that way. A few motorcycle riders had warned us: beautiful town surrounded by mountains but it rains all the time and when it does not rain, it drizzles.

The Richardson Highway

There is only one road you can take to Valdez and lucky for us it was a very scenic and fun one. Our lungs still filled with the forest smoke from the Wrangell – St. Elias Park, we were happy to head out south towards to mountains and ultimately the ocean. The drive was as scenic as promised and the only element we had to fight against was a strong side wind. Imagine some of the best mountains landscape you can dream of (for Caroline, it was the Alps) and this is how this road was: large verdant peeks with snow-capped summits, colorful flowers at their feet, like the pink Fireweed and the white Cottonballs, blue translucent glaciers crafting a valley, refreshing waterfalls like the Bridal Veil and the Horsetail. We enjoyed the whole way to Valdez, with an improving weather as the day was progressing.

Living the life in our penthouse

And finally, after the Thompson Pass, the last descent towards Valdez. At that very moment, the sun came out and we reached the city at its peaking beauty: the sun was reflecting on the Valdez bay, all surrounded by beautiful peeks. As we walked down the peer, only the perfect balance between the ocean and the surrounding mountains caught our attention; no sign was left of the oil spill. The campground we chose for our stay was right on the bay, build on a little hill under the trees. We decided to go with the highest campsite there was, lucky for us still available, and had amazing views of the mountains and the bay. Everywhere around us, we could admire the stunning beauty of the area. It was our outdoor penthouse with a view, that we got used to enjoy every morning and evening of our stay.

A wildlife and glacier cruise

Valdez, Cordova and Whittier are the three cities from where you can easily access an incredible marine wildlife sanctuary: the Prince William Sound. Deep blue waters, bordered with countless islands and glaciers; in a nutshell an ideal environment to observe the local species. The morning after our arrival, we left for a day cruise into the Sound. Our two main destinations were the Columbia Glacier, second largest in the world and the Maiers Glacier. We would also stop to observe wildlife in the water and on the land from the surrounding islands.

Wildlife was everywhere for us to enjoy and we had no dull moment as we were sailing to the different islands and glaciers. The ocean was also pretty calm that day and the sun was peaking through the clouds most of the day. We saw so many things that it would be too long describing it all. Here are some of the animals we saw that day: sea mammals like the humpback whales, killer whales, sea otters and sea lions, doll porpoises, birds like the bald eagle, puffins.

Also, we got to get closer to both glacier, called "tidwater glaciers" as they end up in the ocean. Even if the smaller of the two, Maiers was the most impressive as the boat could get close to the “wall”. The Columbia glacier has generated so many icebergs that have detached from it over the last few years that you can't get close to it anymore. It was a wonderful journey; we are now part of the people who fell in love with the Prince William Sound and were lucky enough to experience it on a non rainy day.