Valdez Revisited

Rainy morning on Prince William Sound, Alaska

We arrived in Valdez to find only a few salmon had arrived. We soon learned that the salmon counts were down substantially. This return trip may have been a boondoggle. 

We saw no bears at our normal site. The weir, however, had become even more chaotic. The gulls now numbered in the tens of thousands. Sea lions still gobbled. Sam was still stuck in the truck.  

Tens of thousands of gulls in Valdez, Alaska

We stayed for two nights. The second morning we spied a brown bear and her cub on the flats near No Name Creek. While they were not close enough for a great photo, it was a blessing to see them and watch them interact. 

Brown bear and her cub, Valdez, Alaska

We spent the night in a campground for showers and Wi-Fi. It began to rain around three, and rained steadily throughout the night. 

We had met a fellow putting out posters for his lost eight-year-old beagle earlier in the day.  He and his wife had been looking for their dog for four days.  She had been spotted but fled whenever someone tried to catch her.  I don't know if he ever found her.  It is one of the open-ended stories that we often hear while on the road.

On our last morning, we spied a wayward swan in Prince William Sound. It may have been a rare Mute swan… perhaps someone can identify it for me. How blessed we are. 

Swan on Prince William Sound

I’m sad that our normal number of bears were not here and am hoping that the salmon are just late and their numbers continue to be strong. We remain, however, happy to have been here. 

We leave Valdez to connect with Denali 8, a favorite road. Let’s see what happens next!