Oh, Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth, The road to Valdez, AK, May 31, 2011

Valdez, AK, May 31, 2011. It keeps getting better and better. I thought the Seward Highway along the Cook Inlet would be as good as it gets. I was mistaken. The Glenn Highway and the Old Richardson Highway through the Mat-Su Valley past the Matanuska River and Glacier were just the beginning and that was spectacular enough. However, at the Glennallen Junction we turned on to Old Richardson Highway for the most spectacular drive to date. Bordered on the east by Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, we were in the shadow of bold, rounded, snow-covered peaks reaching to the sky. On the right was one glacier after another. In between, the most water falls I've seen anywhere other than Hawaii added to the excitement with innumerable displays of pure cascading mountain water. The water fell toward earth throwing off sparks of sunlight as the rays reflected off the mist and droplets. You need to make this trip.

We saw no wildlife today other that an occasional soaring eagle. Today, it was the landscape which provided the entertainment. We left Soldotna at 9:00 this morning and drove 530 miles to Valdez. Yes, there is a ferry which would have saved us about 400 miles and seven hours. But, we'd have missed much of the evidence of God's handiwork.

Most of you will remember or have read about the oil spill in Prince William Sound, just off the coast of Valdez in 1989. It was America's introduction to massive oil spills, soiling the coastline for hundreds of miles in every direction. The spill absolutely devastated the local economy here which depended upon tourism and fishing. The fish kill was horrendous, as was the effect on waterfowl and other wildlife. The cleanup took years. When we visited Valdez in 1998, most of the damage had been remediated. There were still lingering effects then. Some of the lawsuits resulting from the spill are still alive today, more than 20 years later.

Valdez is, of course, where the Alaskan Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay ends. Environmentalists opposed the construction of the pipeline and delayed its construction for many years. Ironically, the spill only peripherally involved the pipeline. The Exxon Valdez, the tanker which spilled the oil, had just loaded oil which was transported via the pipeline to Valdez.

Valdez, today, a sparkling little village of about 4000, shows no signs of the 1989 disaster. It sparkles, in part, because the entire town was moved four miles and rebuilt after the Good Friday Earthquake in 1964, a topic I've discussed in an earlier post. The remnants of the original town are still open to public viewing. There isn't much to see. The town was totally destroyed by the 9.2 earthquake whose epicenter was about 45 miles from here.

We don't know yet how long we will be here. The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park beckons to the north. We may spend some time there before our final leg to Haines.