Chitina, Alaska

Dad is checking out the many fish wheels set up along the edge of the Copper River near Chitina. Fish wheels are contraptions that use the water current to turn a wheel that scoops fish out of the water and into a large bin. This technique is particularly effective on the Copper because the river is so muddy that fish tend to swim along the edges where visibility is the best.

We had to imagine how the whole process worked since we did not witness any fish being caught. I don’t know if this was because of the poor runs this summer or the fact that we may have arrived between runs. Either way, The Boy was fine as long as there were rocks and water.

Thompson Pass

We were less than an hour from Valdez when we arrived at this view of Worthington Glacier. I pulled over to take a couple shots but ended up liking this one that Mom got much better. Worthington Glacier is a popular stop because it is so close to the road but it really wasn’t worth the time in comparison to the other glaciers we’d already seen.

We pulled over again just a few miles past Worthington Glacier after going over Thompson Pass. The view was impressive even on a day like this with clouds obscuring most of it.

The serrated edges of the mountain peaks that Mom captured in this image reminded me of our time in the Swiss Alps. This was not entirely surprising. Earlier in the day at a visitors center for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park we watched a film that described the mountains surrounding Valdez as the highest of any coastal range in the world.

Keystone Canyon

We spent the night at a pullout in Keystone Canyon, a short distance from Valdez. It was one of the prettiest places we had stopped along any road in Alaska. After another salmon dinner, we all drifted off to sleep listening to the sound of waterfalls cascading down both sides of the canyon.

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The next morning we stopped at two of the named falls in the canyon on our way into Valdez. This one was Horsetail Falls.

It was raining hard so we weren’t looking to do much outside. This was a good thing because, although there isn’t that much to do in Valdez, we ended up having to get a lot done. After an uninspiring stop at the town’s information center, we headed over to the local Subway for lunch. Afterward, while filling up our truck with gas, I discovered I was low on oil. This resulted in a search for a store that sold oil for my diesel engine. There was only one. I had also discovered a leak in one of my tires so, after our successful search for oil, we set out in search of someone who repaired tires. We ended up paying a mechanic $30 to remove a screw and patch the hole. He had to patch it three times before he was able to get a good seal, leaving me with little peace of mind that the problem had been resolved in the long term. By the time we had worked our way through all of these different issues, we were left with about 45 minutes before we had to line up for our ferry ride.

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