Valdez!

Valdez was a highlight during our 2010 trip.  Perhaps it was because the Horizon oil spill was occurring in the Gulf of Mexico at the time.  Seeing how the wildlife had recovered from the Exxon-Valdez spill encouraged my heart. 

The drive into Valdez is lovely, traveling over mountain passes, high tundra, and through a deep canyon.  Valdez is a working town with many folks supporting the oil industry at the end of Alaska’s oil pipeline.

Valdez Oil Port

A salmon fishery also rests near the end of the pipeline on Dayville Road which leads to the oil pipeline’s end.  Prince Williams Sound rests on the north side of the road.  Estuaries with small creeks running down the mountains, lie on the south side of the road and are connected to the sea via large culverts.  Salmon come to spawn in these creeks, traveling from the ocean to the Sound, then up fish weirs or through the culverts to their places of birth.  It is here, where water meets land, that bears, eagles, otter, seagulls, and other wildlife come to feed on the salmon.

We drove to the fishing weir and saw masses of salmon huddled near the weir entrance.  Each of them waited for the next high tide to try to jump the weir and continue their journey upstream.  Thousands of gulls, eagles, seals, and sea lions gathered around the weir.  We watched one sea lion make his catch and gulp it down. 

Along the bridge near the weir, we found seagulls nesting.

We spent our first night camped along the pipeline road at Allison Campground.  It was noisy enough being so close to the road and its traffic, particularly during shift changes, but when a rented RV pulled in nearby and left their generator running all night, we knew we had to find something quieter.  We changed to the Bear Creek Campground, the place where we had camped during our last visit.  It has a bit of grass, some room between camps, trees, good showers, and WiFi.  For us it is so much better than the open gravel pits with rows and rows of enormous rigs that you find closer to town.

The next morning we immediately went to our favorite spot to see if bears were fishing.  We spent the next four days here, watching and photographing.  I must warn you beforehand that the photos are terrible… every single one!  Little did I realize that the reason I had no problem in 2010 was because it was overcast and rainy during our entire stay in Valdez.  Now we had beautiful sunshine.  Because the sun is so high in this part of the world, rising around 5:30 and setting after 10:30, sunlight flooded the area.  To top it off, the bears were most often shadowed back up in the creek, some 50 yards away.  Unfortunately, I am not skilled enough with my camera settings to compensate for the lighting.  What we witnessed, however, more than made up for the lack of good pictures!

Three black sows, all with first-year cubs, regularly fished the creek during our four days in Valdez.  One had twin cubs and the other two had triplets.  While the mothers fished, they would most often leave the cubs at the base of a tree in a densely forested area, allowing them to feed on an early catch.  At the hint of danger, the sows would grunt to send the cubs up a tree.  Then the mother would continue fishing and feeding until she had her fill or felt uncomfortable. 

We basically set up camp each day just off the main road in front of the creek.  We would pull up as early as eight in the morning and leave around five in the afternoon.  David deployed our awning, and we sat and waited, watching tide ebb and flow and listening to eagles call and seagulls squawk their raucous laugh.  

At low tide, the vast carnage of dead salmon littered the water’s edge while a dozen or more live salmon waited in small pockets of deep water to try once again to reach their destination at high tide.

We met John the first day.  John and his wife live in Valdez.  Now retired, John is a local photographer who enjoyed the same spot we did.  We became friends during our four-day stay. We called him the Bear Magnet after he once called for a bear and one appeared within a few minutes.  John would tell us tales and life stories to pass the time.  Of course, we all scattered to our respective tripods when a bear appeared.

Many people would stop and ask what we were waiting to photograph.  “Tourists,” as John would call them, stopped for a few minutes, then drove on if nothing was happening.  Then the “opportunists” would arrive… sometimes ten or twenty vehicles would pull up if one of the bears came down. 

Other folks stopped to chat… many memorable like Jo from Alabama, a rancher from Montana, and Allen and Barb.  Perhaps the most amazing story came from a Florida couple married 57 years.  She had been diagnosed with breast cancer just a few months after being diagnosed with the beginning stages of dementia.  The doctors cautioned that major surgery such as a mastectomy could lead to total amnesia in some cases of dementia.  Her husband said that they had opted for quality time rather than quantity.  She was using homeopathic healing rather than conventional methods.  They candidly agreed that this may be their last big trip together.  He joked sweetly with her as he told us their story, hugging her to him often.  Obviously, they are now in our prayers.

Watching the bears was an absolutely fascinating experience.  The black sow with twins appeared to be a rather young mother.  She was the most skittish and terribly protective of her twins.  Once she came down to fish, sniffed the air, grabbed a fish, and fled with her babies.  In a short period of time, the largest sow with triplets came down to fish.  It was obvious that the smaller mother was avoiding a confrontation with the larger one.

Cub running after Mamma calls

One of the set of triplets had an amazing difference in size, with a tiny runt, a middle-sized, and a substantially larger cub.  He was also the most skilled of the three, coming down to fish with his mother while the smaller cubs stayed hidden in the forest (if only this photo had come out!!!).  While the largest cub fished with her, the two cubs in the forest would fuss and cry at their mother but appeared too afraid to stray from the trees.

Sow and cub fishing together

One of the sows with triplets came down to fish, leaving her cubs near the tree.  Tourists in a rented RV stopped in the middle of the road to take pictures.  I assume that they didn’t realize that an 18-wheeler was right behind them.  With an oncoming car in the left lane, the 18-wheeler had no place to go.  He landed on his horn, frightening us all.  The sow immediately grunted, sending her cubs up a tree.

It was amazing to watch those cubs… one with a salmon in his mouth… climb over 75 feet up, about two-thirds to the tippy top of the tree.  When the mother had her fill of salmon, she called the cubs down, and they all scampered off.

Blue arrow points to triplet cubs near top of tree.

Triplets climbing down

On our last day in Valdez, we were greeted with cloud cover and hope for better photos.  Unfortunately, we saw only the mother with twins that day.  By evening, it began to mist.  With rain in the forecast for the entire weekend, we decided that it was time to bid Valdez a fond adieu.  I may not have the photos, but thanks, Valdez, for the memories!