The twelfth posting of our Alaska RV trip is about our time in Valdez Alaska.
Valdez, AK
We have reserved Allison Point Campground in Valdez for seven days, but we have two more days to go. We drive to Blueberry Lake State Recreation Site and get a campsite for two nights.
Blueberry Lake State Recreation Site
This is a small campground, about 15 sites. It’s run by a concessionaire, but there are no attendants. We get the last suitable site, write a check for $50 for two nights, and deposit it in the slot. It’s a very pretty area. It’s all dry camping—there is a vault toilet and one water pump, there is no dump station. There is no cell phone service here, but lots of mosquitoes and biting flies.
We are about 25 miles from downtown Valdez, and we need to go to the grocery store. We drive the car into town. We stop several times along the way to take pictures of the waterfalls beside the road.
Valdez is known as the land of waterfalls. We stop at Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail Falls.
After the grocery store, we decide to explore the town. We drive to Allison Point Campground, where we have a reservation in a couple of days. It’s about 15 miles from town. It’s low tide, and we see bald eagles feeding on salmon.
Then, we check out the Valdez Elks Lodge. They have a steak dinner tonight, but we drive back to the RV and cook salmon on the grill.
The next day, we cook breakfast outside, on the griddle. We use bug-spray and thermo-cells to keep the flies and mosquitoes at bay. For dinner, we cook blackened halibut on the griddle.
The halibut is part of what we caught in Homer. See 2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 10.
Allison Point Campground
On Sunday, we drive into town to dump our holding tanks, fill with fresh water and gas. It’s not very far, so we don’t bother to hook up the tow car. After that, we go to Allison Point Campground, about 15 miles from town. It’s right on the water. It’s a city campground with 61 dry camping sites for $20 a night.
We have pretty good Verizon cell phone service here. After we catch up on emails, and make some phone calls, we go back into town to buy groceries and explore.
We stop at The Fat Mermaid and have some smoked salmon dip. Then we go to the grocery store and buy some bison ribeye steaks to grill for dinner. Delicious!
Today, from our RV, we watch a couple of fishing boats pulling out nets full of salmon. Then, at high tide, we go to the Solomon Gulch Hatchery, about a mile down the road, and watch sea lions, sea otters, harbor seals, seagulls, and bald eagles feasting on salmon.
After that, we drive the car to Glacier Lake Park, and walk around looking at the icebergs.
Then, we drive into town and walk around the waterfront. Next, we go to Peter Pan Seafood Market, and buy some fresh Rockfish, frozen Scallops and Halibut cheeks. We cook half the Rockfish for dinner. Excellent!
Today, we drive the car a mile down the road to the Solomon Lake Trail head. We hike to the dam. It’s very scenic, with some nice waterfalls. The trail goes underneath the Alaskan Pipeline at one point. On the hike back, we take a side trail to a scenic overlook of the bay. We talk to some people who saw a bear, but we don’t see any. We hike about four miles total. The trail is mostly gravel and steep in places, but it is very scenic.
We have scallops for dinner. Yum!
The 4th of July has a record high temperature, but we are still a little cold near the water. We drive downtown at around noon. We have lunch at a food truck called the Nat Shack. It’s very busy. We wait in line to order two halibut tacos, and then we wait about an hour until they’re ready. They are really good.
After we eat, we walk around town. There are festivities going on all day, but not much is happening at the moment. We walk back into town and shop in some gift shops. Later, we go back and listen to live music, and have a couple of beers. We watch a Coast Guard rescue demonstration. They start serving hamburgers at 5:00, but the line is very long. We decide to walk into town and eat at the Alaska Halibut House. Very good!
There are no fireworks here. I don’t know if that’s because of all the wildfires in the area or because it doesn’t get dark until after 1:15AM.
Today, we drive the RV into town to dump our holding tanks and fill our freshwater tank. Later, we drive the car into town and walk on the Dock Point Trail. This is a short, easy walk. After that, we go to the grocery store, and then, back to the Peter Pan Seafood Market. We are looking for fresh halibut, but they are out of it. They say we should come back at about 11:30 AM tomorrow. We go back to the RV and watch fishing boats catching salmon with nets.
There have been two or three fishing boats out here before, but now there are a lot more. We saw them come in last night and drop their anchor. They’ve been at it since before 6:00 AM. They use two boats to pull a net out and then pull it in to catch the pink salmon coming in to spawn. This has been entertainment for us. They’re all gone by a little after 8:00 PM.
Today, the bay is quiet. The only ones we see fishing are the sea lions, sea otters and bald eagles.
We drive the car into town, and go to the Peter Pan Seafood Market. They didn’t get any halibut in today. The king salmon should arrive after lunch. We go shopping. We go to the Old Town Burgers, but there is a line, with at least a 40 minute wait. So, we get chicken breast wraps at the Safeway grocery store. We go back to the Peter Pan Seafood Market, and buy 2 lbs of fresh king salmon, some frozen sockeye salmon and halibut.
While shopping, I find gear cables for my bicycle. The bike rack on the back of our RV has damaged the gear cables. When we get back from shopping, I replace the cables, and we go for a bike ride. We ride to the Solomon Gulch hatchery, and watch the salmon and sea lions.
We cook half the fresh king salmon for dinner. Delicious! We freeze the other half.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Valdez. It has an interesting history. The original town was destroyed in the March, 1964 earthquake, and was rebuilt in a more stable location. This week the town is overloaded with tourists, but there are lots of working people here—everyone is friendly. We didn’t get a chance to go fishing, because it’s four hours to get out to where they fish, and four hours to get back, and all the charter boats are full. But we have seen lots of wildlife and natural beauty.
We’ve been on the road for 110 days and driven 8,200 miles. We’ve spent $4,900 on gas and $2,700 on campgrounds. It’s time to start making our way back. Next—our last days in Alaska…