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6/19/02 PM Valdez
We are in Valdez today.
Valdez get 25 to 81 feet of snow each year. Sometimes ten feet of snow in one
snowfall. They use rotary snowplows. There is a snowboard competition each
year. There are poles about 25 feet tall along the highways to show where
to plow. Also, the road has a magnetic strip along the edge. The plows
have magnetic sensors so the driver can see where he is relative to the
edge of the road.
It took 2 years and $8 billion to build the oil pipeline. It's 800 miles
long and 48" in diameter. The oil moves at 4.6 MPH. So far 16,000 tankers
have been filled at Valdez.
Glacier silt feels like talcum powder and makes the glacier run-off water
a dirty milky color.
Old Valdez (pre-1964 earthquake) was built on glacier silt. During the
earthquake the silt liquefied, destroying some buildings. Some of the
lower silt (beneath the water level) rushed into the bay, causing the
water to leave the bay. When the water rushed back in, it destroyed much
of the rest of the town. The town was rebuilt four miles away, on rock.
Valdez is the most northern ice-free port in North America.
Alaska is glaciers!!! We took a bus trip this morning over Thompson Pass
(2678 ft) to see the Worthington Glacier. The bus stopped at a pull-off
area on the highway so pictures could be taken. The bus then took us to a
visitor's center about 1000 ft from the glacier. We walked 500 ft to an
observation deck. We saw that if we walked on glacier deposits, around the
observation deck, that we could walk to the glacier. There was no stopping
us now!!! I was near the front of a group of people walking and climbing
to see the glacier close-up. I yelled numerous times when I saw the pretty
blue color of some of the glacier ice. Yell, yell, yell, wow, wow, wow!!!
Nature's beauty is fantastic! We walked over small streams coming out from
beneath the glacier, and walked up to the glacier. Because the glacier is
retreating, the terminus of the glacier is low ice without crevasses. We
walked on the glacier and took pictures. Walking on the glacier has to be
one of the highlights of the cruise.
The Richardson Highway, going past the Worthington Glacier, follows the
Lowe River through the Keystone Canyon. This canyon is names after one of
the explorers, Abercrombie, who was from Pennsylvania. There are 264
waterfalls in the Keystone Canyon. We saw several today. They’re
beautiful.
Tomorrow is Hubbard Glacier.
Today started out cloudy with slight showers, but the showers ended by the
time we reached the Worthington Glacier. Please view the
pictures by using the button links at the top of the page.
Continued on the next page. |
