Saturday-July 15-Day 25 To Beautiful Valdez

This is the view from our campsite when we awoke this morning. I just cannot get enough of the aqua water! It almost looks dyed, yet it is exactly how God made it! So Beautiful!  We had a leisurely morning and only left Grizzly Ridge at 9:45.  It was another day of beauty and marveling at God's creation as we drove back the Seward Highway, returning to Anchorage.

Here are two pictures of two different rivers,  You can see the difference between the gray glacial river and the blue fresh water river.

The clouds were hanging low over the mountains this morning.

We passed the Alaska Railroad Train as it wound it's way south toward Seward.

When we arrived back in Anchorage we did some grocery shopping. Seems to take a lot of grub! But we are eating well!
And Anchorage is cheaper than any other place to buy things.

When the groceries were put away, we gassed up and headed out of town, traveling east on the Glen Highway.

Marie happened to spy this eagle sitting on a log on a lake as we drove by.  I whipped up my camera and took a quick shot out the window. And this is what I got!  It was a lucky (blessed! ) shot! Then I cropped and enlarged it.

I feel like I need to apologize for overloading my blog with scenery, but this place is just so indescribable!!  Around every curve in the road, over every mountain top, in every deep valley, God gives us a another reason to be in awe of His creation and this beautiful world that he has made for our enjoyment!

Sometimes the water is sky blue....

sometimes  a muddy gray......

.....but always lovely to behold!

Travelling on the Glen Highway we saw the Matanuska Glacier.
The Milepost says that this glacier has changed very little over the last  400 years. I wonder how they know that,
since our country is only 240 years old??

Changing scenery....

See the rafters on the creek?
When they get wet, I wonder if they feel muddy?

The road winds around the mountain , parallel to the river.

Colorful mountains!

Colorful roadways!

The skies were very interesting today too!  Sometimes we could see the storms on the far side of the mountain.

We were blessed to to see this very unusual sight!  A rainbow  in the valley between two mountains!

Worthington Glacier

The peaks became sharper as we got closer to Valdez.

Suddenly we came through the mountains and this rocky grassy landscape took the stage.

Not too many miles had passed until the mountains returned, now dressed in green and decorated with waterfalls!

Coming in to Valdez was a stunning drive!
This is Lowe River in the Keystone Canyon, presumably named after Pennsylvania, the Keystone state!

Bridal Veil Falls

Horsetail Falls

Our destination for today.
We decided to get a light bite to eat since it already was about 7 PM. And that decision was not a very good one. Hind sight is always better than foresight! The food was very expensive, so we all got a salad, and our bill was still $50!! 

 I had read about a place to go see the salmon run, so when we checked in at  our reserved campground, Bayview RV, I asked about it,  thinking it would be something we could do before heading north on Monday. The gal at the desk said we should go now. The place was at a salmon hatchery about 10 miles out of town. The salmon run only when the tide is in, and it had been high tide about an hour before we checked in. Although we were all a bit tired, and it already was after 8:30, we decided to go out there to see what we could see, before we sat up the motor home for the night! And we are glad we did! The above pic is of the salmon.....

And these next pics are of the Stellar Sea Lion that was out there catching fish for his dinner!  This is not a good shot, but only after I looked at it, I realized he had a fish in his mouth.

There were hundreds of sea gulls also floating around.
They love salmon too!

It was going on 10 PM when we finally came back to the campground and got our motor home set up for the night.
We all showered and hit the sack, anticipating an exciting day tomorrow.