Here's the boat we cruised on - the Lu-Lu Belle. The boat is not large and holds perhaps 40 passengers. The boat is captained by the owner. While underway, he maintains a running commentary on the history, geology, culture, economics and animals of the area. You can ride with the captain in the wheel-house if you desire. In the background is one of the boats used by the Stan Stephens Tour Company. Their boats have double the capacity of the Lu-Lu Belle and are company run. Given the cost is the same, I prefer the more intimate approach of the Lu-Lu Belle.

A line-up of some of the commercial fishing vessels in the Small Boat Harbor.

The day after our boat tour, we drove back out the Richardson Highway, over Thompson Pass to the Worthington Glacier. It's an easy hike to the face of the glacer - but today, like many I've seen on this trip, it was raining. Look carefully just right of center and you can see a group of people. That's a bunch of kids getting ready to scale the face of the glacier. This is a sort of "outward bound" thing for them - and none of 'em has done anything like this before!

Their two guides on the top edge rigging the belay for the ropes the kids will use.

Back near the parking lot, a view of the two finger of the glacier and the glacial lake between the glacier and the terminal moraine. The finger on the left is the one pictured above.

Back at Valdez, this is the view out the windshield of the RV. A local fisherman, a commercial seiner and far in the background, a tanker taking on a load at the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline.

The next day, still overcast but not actually raining, we decided to take another hike - this one the Mineral Creek Trail at the west edge of Valdez. Of course, this is the Mineral Creek - at an unnamed chute, flume or channel. This is a wide, wild creek fed by several glaciers in the area. The gray color of the water comes from "Glacial Flour," stone ground up into a powder like consistency by the movement of the glaciers. If you look carefully just left and up from the center, you'll see Lesley standing on the shore of the creek - now you've some perspective of the size and the amount of water.

Now, I turn around 180º and take a shot of the flume - this is only about 4 feet wide and ALL the water flows through this channel. It's got to be 20-30 feet deep to handle all this water!

Shot from a little further downstream - the 2x8 I was standing on to take the previous shots! Don't try this if you're subject to vertigo!

Back on the main trail, downstream slightly, a shot of the creek and the channel.

Although it was early July, there was still a lot of snow along the trail. Here's a shot of two avalanches across the creek that had not yet melted. The creek tunnels under 'em. The one in the foreground we had to cross - not across the creek itself, but the snow on the right covered the trail to a depth of some 16 feet - so we had to climb over it.

The point of the whole trail - an abandoned gold mine. This was the end of several tram-lines that brought the ore from several mineshafts to a central location for processing. If you search the area, you can find other hardware and debris from the operation, but this is the most apparent. We walked upstream a little from this and found four guys panning for gold in a side-stream. I asked if they were having any luck - and got an evasive answer - there is still gold in these hills!!

Getting to the trailhead had it's interesting points too. Here we're in the middle of another avalanche not yet melted - a snow plow had cut a path through what was left.

- Next -
- Kennecott and McCarthy - A Haven for Modern Day Birkenstockers -
- The Wrangells and Hiking on the Root Glacier -

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