This is a photo of the processing terminal at the southern terminus of both the Alaska Pipeline and the Richardson Highway, at the end of Dayville Road. It was taken from the Alaska Marine Highway Terminal in Valdez in Prince William Sound.
On a previous trip, Jason and I fished near the buildings of the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery and Solomon Gulch Falls, where we quickly caught our limits. I had a little bit of trouble negotiating the rocks down to the water this time, so we decided to fish off the main docks in town. Cathy caught her first salmon and in a short time, we caught three to take back to the motorhome. Directly above the buildings is the Copper Valley dam, reservoir and cogeneration project. Cathy and I hiked up to the reservoir, over the ridge directly above these buildings on a previous trip.
This is the view looking down the highway adjacent to our motorhome park. There is the Crooked Creek Information Site, the Crooked Creek Falls, and the Chugach National Forest salmon spawning viewing stream and platform at the bend in the road.
This is the main road into Valdez as it exits Keystone Canyon with the Lowe River alongside.
A random waterfall and of course, Bridalveil and Horsetail Falls, all in Keystone Canyon. These waterfalls freeze up in winter and become world-class ice climbing venues.
Looking at snow-capped Chugach Range mountains across the braided Lowe riverbed.
This is the first time in many stays here that this glacier, deep in the Chugach National Forest caught my eye. I guess I was always looking at something bigger or better.
This is Robe Lake, at about 10:00 PM. I did not take a photo of the young girl twirling fire batons on the beach, as I think we caught her by surprise.
Leaving Valdez, we decided NOT to take the Tok (Highway 1) cutoff, as it was very rough going on the way in a couple of months ago. Instead, we continued on the Richardson (Highway 4) from Valdez to Delta Junction, the official end of the Alcan Highway. Even though this was about 200 miles out of the way for us, it was a different route, one we have not taken in years. We stopped at milepost 197.7 , the summit of Isabel Pass, to read the memorial monument honoring the route’s namesake, General Wilds P. Richardson, which was also a good viewpoint for the Gulkana Glacier (slide 1) and the nearby mountains.
Here are more photos from our “detour”. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery and it brought back some memories. Here are a few more photos of the route through the Alaska Range.
Travelling with the Schinglers 