366 miles on the Richardson Highway from one end of Alaska to another has got to deliver some quirky sights – we discover nonstop Christmas in North Pole, military might and historic roadhouses and drive through glaciers to the charming waterfront town of Valdez which has weathered both earthquakes and oil spills.

I’d had the odd hint of what was coming: walking into a restaurant and seeing a Christmas tree or a house hung with lights and reindeer so that I had to stop and think what month are we in? It was early August.

However North Pole, some 14 miles south of Fairbanks, is the place where the spirit of Christmas lives year round! Not only is there a St. Nicholas Drive and a Mistletoe Drive, but the electricity poles are painted in candy stripes.

It all started as a publicity stunt in the 1950’s and has obviously got totally out of control. If you must, you can stay in the Hotel North Pole in a Christmas themed room but we contented ourselves with a visit to the Santa Claus House which dates back to 1952 and is stuffed with everything festive.

I must admit I was quite taken with some of the tree ornaments, including a complete range of American junk food baubles including beef burgers, pizza and Kentucky Fried Chicken. The forces weren’t forgotten either with various different hats and uniforms.

There were trees and lights and colour and surprisingly we even found something we wanted to buy from the sleigh bell selection: a chunky leather keyring with a brass bell.

Hastening out before we succumbed to further temptation, and deciding we didn’t need to pet the reindeer in the Antler Academy, we fled south.

After a pleasant picnic lunch on the clover covered banks of Bathing Beauty Pond, we were diverted by the Knotty Shop. This repository of gifts and taxidermy, all housed in a log cabin with huge burl wood verandahs, is very Alaskan. Not wanting to encourage the fur trade we had some ice cream on the deck before continuing our trip.

This ended up being rather exciting as we passed Eielson Air Force Base where aviation forces are prepared for combat. A squad of sleek dark grey F35s were lined up on the bitumen whilst others did unending laps of landings and take offs, making an unholy racket. Hopefully they don’t know something we don’t!

The landscape was thick spruce trees everywhere until we began to see the slopes of the Alaska range with its three great peaks which looked suitably jagged and snowy. Mount Hayes is the largest at 13,832 feet, with Mount Hess next in line (11,940 feet) then Mount Deborah (12,339 feet). 

There were good views too over the wide, dirty swathe of the Tanana River which shadowed the road until Big Delta where at Milepost 275 we came across an old friend again: the trans-Alaska pipeline, still on its steady way towards Valdez.

The 1,200 foot section is suspended between two towers on the second longest of the 13 major bridges along it’s 800 mile length. It looked quite delicate on a sunny evening, all silver sheen and fine cables.

We backtracked a couple of miles to a little lane we had spotted leading down to the Tanana; above the river and with the Alaska Range in sharp relief, it was one of our best campsites yet and a wonderful sunset spot. 

Big Delta State Historical Park

The next morning we crossed the Tanana and visited the Big Delta State Park on its left bank.  A trading post and roadhouse had existed there since 1904; in 1909 it was purchased by John Hajdukovich and the building we see today dates from 1914.

A centre of activity for miners, freighters, military and hunters and trappers, in 1917 John employed a fellow Swede Rika Wallen to manage it.

Rika bought it in 1923 for ”$10,000 and other considerations”. No-one ever quite worked out what the other considerations were but she ended up running it until the late 1940s and lived there until her death in 1969.

She certainly kept herself busy raising cows, sheep, goats and hens as well as growing vegetables so that there was always produce ready for her customers. It is a handsome 3 storey log cabin and on entering one is met with jazzy music and displays on what it would have been like in it’s heyday.

To its rear a livestock barn still stands and another modern log cabin houses a little museum. Nearby there are buildings from the Washington to Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS) which was built in 1903 and had soldiers stationed every 20-40 miles along the line.This station opened in 1907.

In 1943, a bridge replaced the ferry across the Tanana and the road was realigned to meet it; suddenly and sadly Rika was out on a limb and the roadhouse never recovered.

We enjoyed wandering around the exhibits and finished with a visit to Rika’s grave as marooned in the forest now as her roadhouse was when the bridge arrived.

Big Delta

These days the action has moved a little way south to Big Delta, where the Alaska Highway officially finishes after coming 1,422 miles all the way from Dawson Creek in British Colombia, Canada. Speedily built in 1942 after the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands, it is now one of the world’s greatest road trips.

There is a Visitor Center which sells the appropriate stickers and souvenirs and a pole outside for the photographs. For a little light relief, two giant mosquito statues have been provided too.

Across the road, the Sullivan Roadhouse Historical Museum dates back to 1905 and is one of the last surviving roadhouses from the Valdez – Fairbanks trail. It was considered one of the more comfortable and homely of the often very basic roadhouses en route and has excellent historical displays inside. It was funny to see the early husky harnesses were actually made with little leather collars for the dogs, like those used on horses – nowadays they have breast harnesses.

A local recommendation led us to the Fire food truck just opposite which actually did very good burger and chips and had little picnic tables.

Fort Greely

Four miles south of Delta Junction stands Fort Greely (261) whose main gate has a couple of tanks on display outside. It was established in 1942 as a staging post for pilots on the lend lease programme. Later it was used for cold weather field tests as temperature extremes in the area range from -69°F to 91°F. These days it is a ballistic missile defence site which maintains forty interceptors.

The road follows the pipeline southwards with Donnelly Dome (3,910 feet) visible to the west. The local bison herd, as featured on many a menu, is known to wander in this area.

The Denali Highway goes westwards at Paxton and is paved for the first 21 miles – the scenery is stunning and there are some nice roadhouses near Tanglewood Lakes so it is worth the detour if there is time.

Otherwise there are forests and lakes and great mountain backdrops to keep one occupied, until nearing Glenallen there is a wonderful view of  Mount Drum (12,010 ft), Mount Sanford.(16,237 feet), Mount Wrangell (14,163 feet) and Mount Blackburn (16,390 feet) in the Wrangell St Elias National Park. 

Their pristine snowy heights tower above the landscape and it is worth popping in to the Wrangel Saint Elias National Park and Preserve (106.8) to learn more about the park, which is actually fairly inaccessible.

The centre has a good variety of displays and information plus an area on the history of the native Alaskans. It shows short films and has the only good WiFi for miles.

Copper Center

After crossing the Klutina River, there is a turn off to the east to Copper Center which is worth a brief detour. The place is fairly run down but there is a little museum in adjacent cabins which is quite interesting.

The trail of 1898 from Valdez came in here and joined with the Eagle Trail to Forty Mile and Dawson. These days it is a popular stop when the Sockeye salmon are running from June to early August.

It also has one of the better accommodation choices in the area: the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge – located at the junction of the Klutina and Copper rivers, it has spectacular mountain views.

Stunted black spruce trees are a sign of wet ground and permafrost; they lined the road as we motored south. On a clear day, the Willow Lake Viewpoint (87.7) is a must: the four beautiful Wrangell Saint Elias peaks are vividly displayed along the horizon with a large lake in the foreground. Mount Wrangell is actually a volcano and on clear days steam can be glimpsed rising from its heights.

We pulled in at the Little Tonsina River State Recreation Site (65.1), a pleasantly leafy campsite that is no longer maintained. Simon headed down to the river which ran in a large culvert under the road and managed to catch an Arctic greyling. Salmon in their spawning colours could also be seen in the waters and moose prints dotted the edges.

To the Thompson Pass

Driving in Alaska is always rewarding and our first major sight the next day was the Worthington Glacier, whose white expanse shone ahead of us – it actually looked far more spectacular from the road than close up.

Parking was $5 and there was a short walk to a look out point above the lake. It was possible to hike on further to the tongue of the glacier (watch out for rocks falling) or for the really dedicated a rough track leads up to its left and ascends the mountain on dodgy scree covered slopes for a closer look.

The pass at 2,678 feet is undistinguished, a mere sticker-laden sign, but pause a while and walk up the short but steep gravel access road to the ridge above and you will find one of the most stunning viewpoints in the Valdez area.

Even better, follow the road along the ridge for two miles and you will find two beautiful hidden lakes and more great views. It is enough to turn around here, but possible to continue on longer explorations if wanted. The mountains are dramatic, cradling hanging glaciers in their midst, and spiky peaks.

Just below on the other side there is a large pull in area. The rough track that leads off for 2 miles down the valley is a remnant of the old 1899 Military Road. 

Another outcrop leads to a wonderful viewpoint over the Lowe valley and a popular wild camping spot, although it is a rough access road.

The Blueberry Lake Campsite is further down the pass and is known as one of Alaska’s most beautiful campsites with spacious sites with wonderful views, whilst the lake has good fishing.

The road descended to Keystone Canyon, a narrow, avalanche prone area where the glacial river runs beside the road. We stopped to look at an unfinished railway tunnel that was built in Kennecott mining days but never followed through.

Just below it is the first of the three larger waterfalls in the canyon that are on the tour bus stops: Rudleston, falling obliquely down a fault in the rock, Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail.

‘Very American, you don’t even need to get out of the car!” Simon observed as we pulled in to look at the 600 foot Bridal Veil falls , narrowly tumbling in tiers over the cliff face. It is actually worth getting out of the car and crossing the road so one doesn’t have the road barrier in the photos!

The Goat Trail

This 2 mile walk with only 500 foot of elevation will give you a taste of the trails of old Valdez. A four mile track was initially roughly hacked into the walls of Keystone Canyon in 1898 but the following year it was improved as the Government approved the Trans Alaska Military Road linking Valdez with Eagle City.

Safer than crossing the Valdez glacier in summer, it became one of the main gold seeking routes to the interior, although the frozen river was still the preferred method for winter travel. Improved to a wagon trail, it was abandoned after WWll when the present highway was built.

It leaves from the Bridal Falls parking area and ascends gently through a corridor of thick vegetation and trees. Vivid red elderberries lined the track; the leaves look and smell much like the English version but the berries are a bright red, not deep purple.

In places it really hugs the cliff and at the first viewpoint which overlooks the railway tunnel you can see how high you are – luckily there are lots of small trees lining the edge so you don’t feel too unsafe.

The next section was cleared but a little rougher, with a few fallen trees and rockfalls to negotiate. Just before we emerged at Snowslide Gulch, we found a large pile of bear shit on the track but luckily no bear.

A lively and very icy stream tumbled down a rocky valley, surrounded by high mountains with lots of tumbling waterfalls. The bridge had been washed out and although we could have crossed the water and continued, the track was unmaintained and overgrown so we retraced our footsteps.

Valdez 

And so we finally arrived in Valdez, a beautifully located town which is cradled by the mountains around the Prince William Sound. The snowiest town in Alaska with an annual average of 305.8 inches (the record is 5’8” in one day!) although in 1989-90 they had a total of 560.7 inches overall – or 46 feet! This makes it a popular destination in winter for extreme heli-skiing, ice climbing and dog mushing.

Luckily we were visiting in the gentler climes of August, the fireweed was still in bloom and everything was lush and green and dandy, although Valdez has had its share of troubles in the past including the second largest earthquake in the world at 9.2 on the Richter scale.

This occurred on Good Friday in 1954, leading many people to wonder if the end of the world was nigh. It was for the 32 unfortunates who were caught on the dock when it plunged 9 feet and was then covered by a huge tidal wave, but the rest of the town was merely extensively damaged.

Built on unstable glacial silt it was decided to start afresh 4 miles around the coast and what wasn’t salvaged was destroyed. Today it is possible to visit the site of the old town where the wooden bones of the old dock can still be seen and a trail of scattered signs tell of what was once there. 

Oil – the Exxon Valdez Disaster

Valdez was originally called Port Valdes in 1790 by Spanish explorers and a small trading post was already in existence when the gold seekers arrived. They faced a treacherous journey over the Valdez glacier before the military arrived to develop the road to the interior.

We visited the glacier and today it is much further back; one needs to walk around the edge of the lake for about half an hour before rounding a point to be able to see the still distant tongue. However, the lake in front of it does have large slabs of ice and icebergs and it is quite a scenic spot. 

Sadly the pipeline was also the cause of the biggest tragedy to hit Valdes in recent years, when the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran around on Bligh Reef (11 miles from Valdes) in 1989 – ironically on another Good Friday.

11 million gallons of crude oil were spilled into the Sound; it is estimated that 2,800 sea otters died alongside 260,000 – 580,000 seabirds, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles and up to 22 killer whales.

1,300 miles of coastline were affected although it didn’t actually reach Valdez itself. Despite massive clean up efforts, not all the oil could be recovered and remains toxic today. One only has to dig into the sand of certain beaches to find the residue and although many populations have recovered others have virtually disappeared, such as the local orca pod, murrelets and herrings.

Museums of Valdes

The Valdez Museum and Historical Archive

The early days of Valdez, the earthquake and the Exxon oil spill are all covered in the excellent local museum. There was also a photography exhibition whilst we were there and in an annexe just down the road (covered by the same ticket), there is a lovingly constructed model of old Valdez – it is worth a visit to put it all in context.

The Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum

The Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum collection is owned by the adjacent college. Maxine was a great and eclectic collector and in 1969 bought a gift shop from her friend who sold native artefacts – which she then ran for 20 years. When Maxine died in 1979, she left the collection to the college.

And what a collection it is! Early on, she amassed a huge assortment of antique arrow heads and flints. In the shop she sold native arts to tourists, as well as accumulating a vast array of excellent taxidermy (not even the huskies were safe!) This will probably be the closest you will ever get to a moose so look carefully – the bull was once the biggest trophy moose on record.

There are a lot of native artefacts that one has to think about in that they were not always authentic to the culture but adapted for the western tourist market – such as the ivory transport sculptures –  but nevertheless, it was an intriguing display.

Having completed our initial explorations of Valdes, we retired to The Valdez Brewing Company which has a good craft beer selection with both in and outside seating. They don’t do food but Poor Betty’s Cajun style food truck was parked outside – we took their halibut box to the table and snacked on chunky fish bites and fries. 

We drove 10 miles north of town to camp on a peaceful dead end road on the Lowe River, with beautiful mountain views.

Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery

Driving into Valdez the next day, we paused at the famous Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery, number one on everyone’s list of things to do in Valdez, mostly because they hope to see a bear.

Directly across the bay from the town, it was built in 1983 by the Valdez Fisheries Development Association to ensure enough wild salmon returned every year to keep the commercial fisheries in business and the sport fishing industry happy.

The hatchery is allowed to incubate, rear and release 270 million Humpy (pink) salmon and 2 million Coho (silver) salmon annually – which sounds fine in practice but now we were seeing their return and it wasn’t pretty.

The sea was alive with hundreds of thousands of salmon coming back to the place of their birth to spawn, crowding the weir which blocked their access to the stream so that they were directed into a ladder of flowing water which they ascended to end in a crowded pen at the fish factory.

Once inside, they are stunned by electrocution. The females are cut open to extract the eggs and the sperm is squeezed from the males. The bodies go for pet food. The hatchery processes 20,000 salmon a day, needing a total of 400,000 to repeat the cycle of yearly hatching.

The eggs are then fertilised and incubated; once hatched, they are kept until big enough to release into the inlet. Pinks return in a year, silvers take two years but eventually all get the call to return ‘home’.

The flip side of the coin is that there are too many fish to be processed, a lot suffocate in the melee and the area is filled with dead salmon. At low tide they litter the sands in their thousands. All this abundance is a great feast for the fat Stellar sea lions who gather at the weir, occasionally chomping half heartedly on yet another salmon. It attracts thousands of seagulls, as well as sea otters and even the occasional bear.

It was amazing to see the sheer instinct and determination in the salmon to swim upstream: anything with the slightest outflow attracted them and they even found their way through the culverts under the road into the ponds on the other side, where they meet a dead end en masse. It is these quieter ponds, surrounded by forest, which are more popular with the bears. Although we didn’t see her, a black bear with two cubs had visited one of the ponds – just look for where everyone is parked!

The visitor’s book had many comments along the lines of awesome! amazing! but I really can’t get my head around this place: there is something deeply disturbing about it, an Auschwitz for salmon as these fish battle to ascend the fish ladder in their obliging thousands only to be electrocuted on arrival. Maybe my imagination is too vivid but make of it what you will – and be prepared for the smell of thousands of rotting fish!

Crooked Creek

Just to see how the other 1% (of salmon) live, we went on to visit the Chugach National Forest Information Site at Crooked Creek, about a mile before Valdes and housed in a small log cabin. There is information on the salmon spawning which occurs from mid June to late August and even an underwater camera which is quite neat.

Just behind the cabin, the small stream holds the spawning salmon, the same pinks that we had seen at the hatchery, but wild and in rather nicer surroundings. It was interesting to watch them in the pristine flowing waters, each male seemingly guarding a female. A waterfall slightly higher up the stream confined them into a relatively small area. 

The resulting eggs will hatch in late winter or early spring, the alevins staying hidden in the gravel until their yolk sac is absorbed. Emerging as fry, they head out to sea between March and May, unlike the other Pacific salmon which spend a year in their stream. Pink salmon return after only 1.5 years at sea.

In a wider area on the edge of the nearby intertidal Duck Flats we saw the bigger chum salmon which are 8-10 pounds at maturity. Ready to spawn after 2.5-3.5 years in the ocean, some of them looked very ragged; all their energies go into reproduction and they no longer eat. Their scales are absorbed and they lose the protective slime coat, leaving them open to bacteria.

Out of the millions that hatched here, these are the survivors that made it back but soon they too would die – bizarrely we were watching both the beginning and the end of the salmon’s lives.

Valdez Walks

Time to explore Valdez! Whilst there we fitted in three undemanding but perfectly pleasant walks, starting with a gentle one mile loop walk from Dock Point Park, just across from the small boat harbour, which led around the little peninsula and climbed gently to give a view across the port of Valdez and Duck Flats.

It is really quite a small town with shops and restaurants hugging the harbour, and a lot of RV parks around the edges. Do this one clockwise for a gentle descent rather than a stiff ascent.

The Homestead Trail

Apart from the budgetary wisdom of having a dog stick library at the start, this was a really pleasant 1.2 mile one way flat walk through coastal spruce forest.

It touched Mineral Creek at one point where spawning salmon drifted and then emerged on a grassy point in the bay with a great view down the sound. 

The Overlook Trail

This one took about 10 minutes being only 0.4 miles long! It leaves from behind the Civic Centre and goes up to another good town overlook. Just below is the Valdez Ferry Terminal where wide decks provide popular fishing platforms and nice harbour side views. There is even a memorial to those who built the Trans Alaska pipeline!

Longer walks which we thought sounded interesting included the Mineral Creek trail (12.2 miles return) which wends past waterfalls and old gold mining equipment to a picturesque canyon and the John Hunter Memorial Trail (3.8 miles return) which starts just beyond the Fish Hatchery and climbs to the Solomon Gulch dam and reservoir.

We also liked the idea of the Shoup Bay Trail (Section A as B is unmaintained and beating through thick vegetation isn’t a great idea in bear country!) which is 6.5 miles return and ends at Gold Creek, where it is possible to camp. This one heads down the arm of the inlet so there are good views en route – unfortunately we ran out of time.

Just strolling around the harbour front watching all the activity is great fun and there are little book swop cupboards. The Potato is a reliable hangout which we were already acquainted with from McCarthy and they have a good selection of healthier wraps, although I confess on my last visit I had the Spudniks – the name is awful, they look awful but taste delicious: they are basically chips smothered in a rich cheese and bacon sauce!

The day’s catch is landed at the wharf opposite The Potato and there is a wooden frame from which to hang the fish and be photographed with one’s trophies. Halibut fishing is big business and the town runs a Halibut Derby every year with serious prize money to the successful entrants.

The Fat Mermaid is another good option, a justifiably popular waterfront hangout with a good deck for quaffing their craft beers. Their menu covers the whole spectrum, but for a local flavour try the Alaskan smoked salmon pizza with capers, red onions and horseradish dill cream – delicious!

Valdez may be small and at the end of the road but it is a very scenic road and it is a very likable little town. The whole stretch of the Richardson Highway had thrown up interesting places and stunning scenery. It is said it is not the destination that matters, it is the journey, but in this case it was both!

NOTES

If heading south from Fairbanks, Delta Junction or Glenallen offer a variety of fairly basic accommodation.

Valdez is 5½ hours by road from Anchorage or you can take the Alaska Marine Highway from Whittier, about an hour south of Anchorage.