Travels with haRVy

We didn’t find a lot of charm in the town of Valdez, AK, but it lies on a beautiful calm bay surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks. The setting is quite extraordinary.

We camped one night right on the bay looking back towards town – the tiny white dots you see in the center of the photo above.

Stellar sea lions, otters, eagles, sea gulls, and salmon provided free entertainment.

These smart gulls nested on the bridge next door to the fish hatchery.

Valdez offers many boat tours out to Prince William Sound to view calving glaciers, whales and such. We did that several years ago on our honeymoon cruise so we’re saving our money for new adventures.

Ever seen ice bergs on a lake? These broke off the Valdez Glacier.

We headed north again out of Valdez and up to the Glenn Highway where we were greeted by sunny skies. The coast of Southeastern Alaska can be quite dreary, as it was for us in Valdez.

We went a little out of way to spend a night camping next to Lake Louise.

Happy to say that the cry of the loon still occurs on Lake Louise.

The road into Lake Louise isn’t much better today. Lots of “whoop-dee-doos” as Al calls them.

The next day we opted to have lunch out at the Sheep Mountain Lodge. This is one of the nicest roadhouses we’ve seen so far. I suspect that is because it is just a 2-hour drive from Anchorage.

They have nice cabins and a few RV sites too.

Majestic Valley

Distant view of Nelchina Glacier…

and a closer look at the “toe” of Matanuska Glacier.

We “landed” at this free riverside campsite near Palmer, AK. Not the most beautiful spot we’ve been, but we’re staying an extra day due to high winds. Luckily we have a good Internet connection so we can keep busy.