Gold Rush Days Parade!

From Gold Rush Days Parade!

Every celebration is better with a parade, and Gold Rush Days is no exception. Rain or shine, here they come:



After the parade, we walk over to the Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum, located on the campus of the Prince William Sound Community College.

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

The museum is noted as having one of the largest displays of native Alaskan art and artifacts in the world. It's a real show case museum, however, I spent our entire time there in the lobby on the phone. So, someday later this week, I shall return. Bob really enjoyed it and took the following pictures:

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

Bob said what he enjoyed most was being able to get very close to the displays, and really seeing the outstanding detail on the animal displays.

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

From Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

The Park Strip Shelter lies just behind the museum, and it's time to get to the fish fry before all the fish is gone. It takes just a few minutes to walk over, and fortunately the shelter is covered as the rain is really steady.

Much to our delight, the fish fry is actually grilled salmon, AND you get to have a hot dog! Valdez might be one of the few places where hot dogs cost more than fresh salmon. Anyway, we had more than our fill, drinks included at no cost, and when we left, they had salmon left over and gave us a bag of marinated salmon fillets "to go." I really love Alaska! It was raining too hard to take pictures, but I asked Bob to take one picture of the Air Force Reserve Band standing directly behind us.

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

What a great time we had. Happy Gold Rush Days Valdez!

For further information: Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum

Valdez in the Rain

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

Gold Rush Days comes to a close today, and will culminate with a 3:00 PM parade followed by a free town fish fry.

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

This magnificent carving is proudly displayed in town. I am interested to note the surname name of the artist, Toth. This was my maternal grandmother's maiden name, and all my family immigrated from Hungary, the one country out of north America where this artist has works displayed.

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

Earlier this morning, Bob took a drive around taking a few pictures of the area. The rain is steady, the rivers and creeks swollen.

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

In town, a few items of note stand ready in celebration of the coming parade.

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

From Sight Seeing in Valdez in the rain

This last picture says it all! We're glad to be here in the rain.

Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

Here we are in Valdez, with a bay side view, currently of clouds and fog!

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

Although unseen, views of snow capped mountains, birds, waterfalls and more should be at our doorstep when the weather clears.

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

We try to make our first stop in each town the visitor center. Here we find out we arrived just in time for a 3 day annual celebration of Gold Rush Days. Note the hanging over the wall of the visitor center made to look like an old time bar.

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

The Valdez Museum, our next stop, with displays both on the inside and exterior, features this old green wooden fishing vessel, (shown as lead photo of this post) which is no longer sea-worthy. This boat is of interest as she survived the 1964 earthquake, which destroyed many communities and villages along coastal Alaska. She was pulled under with the tidal waves 3 times, and still lived to sail another day.

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

These pictures do not show we were there during the two hours of free entry in honor of Gold Rush Days. The museum was jammed full of people and getting good shots of the exhibits is almost impossible.

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

From Bayside RV Park & Valdez Museum

These pictures certainly don't convey how interesting this museum is. I really enjoyed the terrific display of historic pictures, the old bar, (wide angle lens a must) history of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, the Richardson Highway, Alaska's first highway, etc.

For further information including some great photos: Valdez Museum

Stop at the Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

Stopping along the Matanuska River on the Glenn Highway, while I fix lunch, Bob is a good samaritan and picks up garbage along the highway.

Next we stop at the Visitor Center of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park Headquarters to check on road conditions for a possible visit on our return from Valdez.

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

Inside the visitor center, several people are asking lots of questions, especially Bob wearing the blue cap at the left end of the counter.

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

While the above is a picture of a picture inside the visitor center, the signs below are taken at the entrance of the visitor center. We asked and received permission to stay the night. It turned out to be a great campground, the kind we like the best. We had it all to ourselves.

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

From Wrangell St. Elias NP Headquarters

Tomorrow we will make it to Valdez and the Prince William Sound.

Eagle River Campground

From Eagle River Campground

We spend two nights at the Eagle River Campground in the Chugach State Park, just outside of Anchorage to pick up my glasses at Costco and to grocery shop. As you can see, the river is quite high and this morning before pulling out of our campground, we take another walk along the shores and get pictures of some more beautiful Alaskan wildflowers.

From Eagle River Campground

From Eagle River Campground

From Eagle River Campground

Now it's time to pull out and take the Glen Highway over to the Richardson Highway en route to Valdez.

From Eagle River Campground

From Eagle River Campground

For further information: Chugach State Park