Our last day in Valdez we were driving around the little town that it is, and stumbled on the Whitney Museum. There were many artifacts and displays, but I'm always drawn to the stuffed wildlife. The humans almost look real, don't they?
Bob is having a conversation with this caribou. He's a "caribou whisperer".
He's a big boy!.JPG)
We all decided to go "snag" "fishing for salmon in Valdez. We pulled up just in time to see these bear cubs crossing the road in front of us..JPG)
They quickly ran the other way across the road. This was an excellent area for them to be able to get all the salmon they could eat from the bay on the other side of the road.
We watched the bears for a long time. This is mama bear on one of her 4 cubs.
Mama bear went off by herself while her cubs played together. We were very close to them. Maybe less than 100 feet. We stayed pretty close to the truck just in case, but Mama Bear didn't seem to mind us at all.
Mama and 4 cubs.
We went down the rocks to do some "snagging". This was my first fish. It was nice, but we threw all our fish back in. We already have a freezer full of salmon and halibut. At this stage in their life cycle, all the salmon want to do is swim upstream to spawn and then die. The waters were teeming with salmon. We used a 3 pronged hook to snag them, no bait. It was fun.
We all snagged salmon. Bob is showing off one of his.
Joe had fun too. The tide was coming in pretty quick, so we couldn't stay much longer.
After snagging, we went down the road to the end of the Alaskan Pipeline. Here is where the oil is loaded on ships.
We drove from Seward to Grand View Campsite in Sutton, AK.
I loved this really cool rock formation behind the campsite office.
There is so much beauty in Alaska. This is just a rocky mountainside, but what beauty!
The big "claim to fame" here at Grand View is the Matanuska Glacier.
We drove a little closer to Matanuska Glacier. This is just a small part of it.
I zoomed way in on the glacier to create this gorgeous picture of ice.
On our trip to Valdez, we saw several views of the Alaskan Pipeline. It is over 600 miles starting in Prudoh and ending in Valdez. The oil is then shipped out to other countries. 
We have seen many, many glaciers on our travels. This was the most spectacular to me. It's name is the Worthington Glacier.
Not too far from the Worthington Glacier was this beautiful glacier on the way to Valdez.
We see many, many waterfalls coming off the glaciers. This is Bridal Veil Falls. Rightly named. So beautiful. I had to stand back a ways to get the whole falls in the picture.
Just around the corner from Bridal Veil Falls is Horsetail Falls. That's me standing in front of it. It's amazing how much water comes off the mountainsides. Alaska prides itself on its bountiful supply of fresh, clean water.
This day, the clouds were still hanging low in the mountains.
We finally made it to Valdez. It's main industry is from the harbor. Many fishing charters, kayaking and watersports. 
We arrived here on July11th. You have to be military to camp here, but it's always filled up. Some just spend a day or two, some just one night. Most everyone comes to get salmon. We stayed ten days. We did some touristy things and some great salmon fishing too.
Here it is, July 20th. It's beautiful, sunny and warm, but there's still snow in the mountains. 
The guys and Shin all went fishing for salmon. It was a great day for fishing. They brought home their limit. Three per person. Sue and I stayed home to care for the dogs. They fished in Soldotna, Ak. The salmon were running. We filled Joe's freezer with the halibut and salmon.
Our camp has wonderful facilities for taking care of the fish. They have two big Fish Houses. 
This is inside one of the fish houses. There is a big long table on the right used for cleaning and fileting. The middle section is for packaging. They furnish paper and tape. The machines on the left are machines to vacuum pack the fish for freezing.
This is a magpie. There are several in our camp. They can be pretty noisy.
What a beautiful day for a cruise. It is the nicest day we've had in Seward. We were comfortable, but the Alaskans were feeling a "heat wave".
Here's our boat. We had plenty of seats to choose. Inside cabin or out in the open. Each table had 2 binoculars for our use.
Joe and I were real troopers. We spent most of the trip on port side until we started getting wet on the trip back.
I could have taken hundreds of pictures. The views were awesome. This picture shows 3 glaciers all in a row. I didn't know this little tidbit, but in order to be called a glacier it has to be moving. In time-lapsed photography it's amazing to see that they are constantly moving. Hard to believe.
So many scenic points along the way.
In this shot, there were hundreds of sea gulls. The rock was white with them.
We were in low tide and this rock had several seals on it, warming in the sun. I think they are waiting for the tide to come back in.
Loch Ness??? I have to admit, I cheated on this picture. We didn't see any whales. 
I couldn't get over the uniqueness of this rock formation.
We spotted this beautiful man- made waterfall that diverts water from the melting glaciers into Resurrection Bay in Seward.
Seward is noted for it's many murals painted on structures throughout the city. 
Next, we visited the Alaska SeaLife Center. There were many tanks with beautiful native fish. They had special tanks where we were encouraged to touch the different sea life such as starfish and anemones. We saw tanks of salmon and explanations of their interesting life cycles.
Majestic polar bear!
This guy, a male sea lion, had a tank all to himself. His whole life is entertaining tourists and keeping the females pregnant. He was huge, over 2000 pounds.
One section was different wild fowl indigenous to Alaska. This puffin posed just for me to take his picture. They are excellent swimmers which is what they did most of the time. It wasn't easy to get one to stand still for a photo.
Our adventure for this day is Seward's own "Exit Glacier". It got it's name from the surveyors because it was easy to come down from compared to the other glaciers. It's one of the few glaciers that you can drive close to and even hike closer.
We took the shorter hike. We may take the 4 mile hike another day. You can actually get right to it on the longer hike.
I have this thing that I collect a stone wherever we go. Joe made a special trek down a cliff to fetch an original glacier stone for me. What a guy! There was a raging stream of water coming off the glacier from the melting ice.
We found a spot where the water off the glacier, deposited chunks of ice. This was a pretty big piece. I even tasted it!
Our next adventure of the day was fishing at Resurrection Bay. Bob rented waders. They were snag fishing. Just a big 3-prong hook, no bait. You just cast out and yank and reel, yank and reel.
Bob snagged a chum or dog salmon. It was edible, but not as good eating as a red salmon. Bob threw it back to grow up a little.
I spotted an eagle flying. All you can see is a little black speck above the trees and clouds on the right side of the picture.
Alaska has wild flowers growing along the roadside and in peoples yards. I think this is a wild phlox.