Valdez to Anchorage

July 1 - 5, 2004

Valdez was destroyed in the 1964 "Good Friday" earthquake, and was totally rebuilt about 4 miles from its original location. Except for a nice museum, the new town is not very interesting. So we limited our stay there to one night and headed for Anchorage the next day.  Our route took us back over the Richardson Highway to Glennallen, and then west on the Glenn Highway.

Along the Glenn Highway we came upon Matanuska glacier and decided to spend the night there. Matanuska glacier is said to be the largest glacier in Alaska accessible by automobile. This picture was taken from our campsite; the glacier is about a half mile away. It rained that night and most of the next morning, which ruined our view of the glacier, but helped clear out the smoke from the forest fires.
 

Downtown Anchorage, with all its flowers, is very appealing. It seemed very crowded to us since we hadn't been in a city this size for several weeks. The Anchorage Museum of History and Art has an excellent Alaska gallery; it traces the history of Alaska for the last 10,000 years. We enjoyed it very much.
 

The days in Alaska are very long; the sun doesn't set until after 11 pm and it never seems to get really dark. Until I thought about it, I was taken aback by the announcement on TV that the July 4 fireworks would start at midnight!
 

The Alaska Native Heritage Center illustrates the lives and customs of the native groups that inhabit Alaska. This guide is explaining the customs of the Yupik tribe, which is from the maritime region of western Alaska. Note the sealskin, which they used to make floats and as water containers.
 

The Heritage Center also has performances by native groups. Here an Alutiiq group from Kodiak Island is performing a dance. The native girl in the front row is only four years old. For this particular dance they invited the audience to join with them, hence the Caucasian looking people in the second row. Check out the one on the end of the second row - isn't she cute?

 

Heading south from Anchorage to the Kenai peninsula, we came upon a herd of Dall sheep along the highway. This one is probably a young lamb.
 

Next stop - Kenai peninsula.