Guide Exploring Valdez, Alaska | SolarTravels.com

<body> Destination Guides > North America > USA > Alaska > Prince William Sound > Valdez Valdez Travel Options Flights Hotels Vacation Rentals Cars • Valdez · The Town And Around • Arrival And Information • Eating • Hotels in Valdez THE TOWN AND AROUND BE THERE NOW Hotels in Valdez • Totem Inn Valdez from • Aspen Hotel Valdez Valdez from • Best Western Valdez Harbor Inn Valdez More Hotels in Valdez >> READ IT HERE VALDEZ , 304 road miles from Anchorage and the northernmost ice-free port in the western hemisphere, lies at the head of a fjord that reaches inland twelve miles from Prince William Sound. Known as "Little Switzerland" due to its stunning backdrop of steep mountains, glaciers and waterfalls, and a record annual snowfall of over forty feet, Valdez (pronounced val-Deez ) offers great hiking, rafting, sea kayaking, wildlife-viewing and, of course, fishing. The 1890s Gold Rush transformed Valdez from a remote whaling station into a flourishing settlement, when thousands of prospectors arrived to head over the deadly Valdez and Klutina glaciers on the Valdez Trail to the mines in the Yukon. Only three hundred of the 3500 miners who set out made it to the goldfield - those that did not perish from frostbite and starvation gave up. Valdez came to depend on fish canneries, logging and occasional military use for its economic survival, and nature conspired to finish it off on Good Friday 1964: the epicenter of North America's largest earthquake was just 45 miles away. Shockwaves turned the ground to quivering jelly, snapping roads, toppling buildings and killing 33 residents. However, the citizens of Valdez refused to be intimidated, and moved sixty-odd buildings to the more stable present site four miles away. The town's fortunes rose again during the 1970s, when oil was found beneath Prudhoe Bay, and Valdez became the southern terminus of the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline , which carries up to two million barrels of oil per day. Although winds and tides ensured that no oil from the Exxon Valdez made it into the port of Valdez, ironically the spill triggered an economic boom for the city as it was the most accessible site from which to direct the massive cleanup . The operation, which lasted into 1991, cost Exxon and the government over one hundred billion dollars, and called on eleven thousand workers in over one thousand boats and three hundred planes to scour the beaches. The Town and around The Valdez Museum , 217 Egan Drive (summer daily 8am-6pm; $3), carries just the right amount of detail on the Gold Rush, glaciation, the oil pipeline that supports the town's economy, and a display on the oil spill; and an annex The Valdez Museum , 217 Egan Drive (summer daily 8am-6pm; $3), carries just the right amount of detail on the Gold Rush, glaciation, the oil pipeline that supports the town's economy, and a display on the oil spill; and an annex , 426 Hazelet St (summer daily 9am-4pm; $1.50), covers the 1964 earthquake at length. Oil industry aficionados will want to take the two-hour Alyeska Marine Terminal bus tour (summer 2-4 daily; $16; tel 907/835-2686), which leaves a small visitor center at 212 Tatitlek Street and takes you around the fjord into the $1.4 billion Alyeska pipeline terminal where crude from the arctic is pumped into waiting tankers. You'll need transport to get to the Alaskan Cultural Center , at the airport (daily 9am-6pm; $4), with its astounding collection of carved ivory and an assortment of dead beasts, including a couple of moose hides with Alaskan scenes burned into them by an early pioneer. If you fancy something more active, mountain bikes can be rented at Beaver Sports, 316 Galena St (tel 907/835-4727), and Keystone Raft and Kayak Adventures, at Mile 17 on the Richardson Highway (tel 907/835-2606 or 1-800/328-8460), can take you rafting ($50) along the Lowe River as it surges through Keystone Canyon. Out in the Sound, Anadyr Adventures (tel 907/835-2814) offers sea kayaking among the ice floes and whales from around $90. While here, you should take a cruise out into Prince William Sound, principally to see the spectacular Columbia Glacier , nearly four miles wide at its face and towering three hundred feet above the sea. Unfortunately it is receding rapidly and the fjord is now so choked with ice that you can't get close to the face. You can see it at long range from the Alaska Marine Highway ferries running between Valdez and Whittier, but for a closer look at this calving giant go with Prince William Sound Cruises and Tours (tel 907/835-4731 or 1-800/992-1297, ), who pick their way through a floating icefield and point out such sights as Bligh Reef, where the Exxon Valdez ran aground. Choose between a nine-hour cruise that includes a salmon bake, for $119, and a six-hour cruise at $74. </body>