We opted out of going to the town museums in Valdez because I wasn't sure the kids would do much besides make me chase them, so we have plenty of reasons to return to Valdez. But I wanted to stop by the old townsite before we left. The 1964 Good Friday earthquake that hit the Prince William Sound area definitely hit Valdez hard. The whole town ended up being relocated as most of the shorefront sloughed off into the ocean thanks to liquefaction during the shaking. The following tsunami devastated what was left.
The old townsite was actually a bit of a letdown. They moved most of the buildings, so there isn't much left to see - at least from driving around the old roads. I read online later that you have to get out and explore to really appreciate the area and thanks to the rain, we didn't do that. Next time!
This section of dock and hunk of something was the biggest thing in the old site. I have no idea if it is a ship or something else. Google was no help on it. So I'm going with ship until told otherwise.
We drove around the bay to see if we could find anyone fishing. It is supposed to be the best time of year and we thought Thomas would get a kick out of watching people fish. But either the fish weren't cooperating or people weren't braving the weather, because there was no one!
We gave ourselves two days to get back home since it is a long drive and we thought taking it easy would be more relaxing. On the way to Glen Allen, we decided to detour and go out to Copper River to see if people were fishing there. It's dip netting season, surely there would be people on the river known for the best salmon!
Nope!
There were several fish wheels on the side of the river, but no one was using any of them, so I still have no idea how they work. And you can tell it's a bit of a gloomy day - though not actively raining. With nothing better to do, we decide to keep on driving toward Kennecott/McCarthy. It's a long drive on a gravel road, but Matt has driven it twice on his motorcycle and has told me how awesome it is. So I was game!
The road is actually over the old railroad track. And in some places you can see pieces and parts of the old track - like where it is randomly sticking out of the hillside.
The first bridge is quite impressive - it's a single lane and about 240' above the river. Matt tells me it's a little bit disconcerting on a motorcycle. I thought it was awesome!
We also decided on this trip that there are no signs in Alaska that haven't been shot. It's definitely a thing up here for some reason.
End of the road for the cars! The bridge to get across the Kennicott is a footbridge, so we walked across. According to Matt there has been some historical drama over the bridge and the option to ride motorcycles and ATVs across it. Slightly down river you can pay someone a hefty fee to ferry your car across, but most people don't bother as the town has shuttles.
While this footbridge is wide enough for motorcycles, at one point barriers were constructed to block motorcycles. Then they were cut down. Lots of drama back and forth until finally it was decided they could cross. So both times Matt has visited, he has ridden across. Lucky him!
The water under the bridge is moving pretty fast. Surprisingly, neither of the boys were all that concerned.
This is Rigor Mortis, a monument to the ingenuity of the people in town to make do with what little they have and how many different vehicles are cobbled together to make this truck. And apparently in the 1980's, though I would have assumed it was *much* older.
After waiting a few minutes for the shuttle we just missed, we found a sign that said McCarthy was only a half mile. We figured that was walkable and set out on our way. For future reference, Henry's stroller is not made for gravel roads. At the firs museum, there is a fork in the road. One side goes up to Kennecott and the other goes over to McCarthy. The guy across the river had said the grocery store in McCarthy had an ATM (to pay for shuttle rides, we had minimal cash!), so that's where we were headed.
As soon as we turned right, Matt started to realize that while he has been to Kennecott twice, he had actually missed McCarthy both times! It's obviously a very tiny town (last census was 42 residents!), so it's not hard to overlook I guess.
But the grocery store was pretty impressive! The boys were having a blast looking at all the food - they were scoping out boxes of milk in this photo. But look at the selection of above them - soy sauce and kaffir lime leaves. So international!
We stocked up on snacks before heading over to meet the shuttle. Thomas was super upset they didn't have popsicles in the store and refused to eat any of the snacks I picked out. Henry was super excited about his string cheese though!
The Kennecott mines were abandoned in 1938 after mining just over $200 million in copper. It was declared a national landmark in 1986 and they have been in the process of restoring some of the old buildings since then. The National Park Service runs it, but there are several private residences in the park from before it was made a landmark. It's a very neat place, I wouldn't mind a tiny house out there!
The large structure to the right is the 14 story mill. There are assorted buildings in varying stages of repair. We showed up way too late to get a tour, but I hear the official tour goes in several of the buildings and is pretty awesome. Excuse to come back!
The power plant for the mine. The biggest concern of the whole operation was this building catching on fire - so of course, it did. Amazingly, they got power back up in running in 12 days. In the 1930's! It took longer than that for our power to get turned back on after Hurricane Katrina when we lived in the center of Houston!
They had multiple ways to generate power, but the row of four steam boilers were by far the most impressive. I would imagine that this building was the best one to work in during the dead of winter. No insulation, but plenty of heat being generated!
This was inside one of the company houses. It looked so much like all of the old houses in our Houston neighborhood that it made me a little homesick. Thomas was just having fun playing in the cabinets. This one was owned by the park service, but the one next door was a private residence. So awesome!
The mill building was just so tall and impressive. It started out much smaller, but as they mined more copper ore, the ore quality would change and they would have to add in additional milling methods. So they just kept building the mill further and further up the hill.
I really loved this building. I took way too many photos of it. It was so impressive from all angles. I really want to come back for the tour just for the mill.
Thomas of course was not as interested in the mill, but was super excited when he saw a fuzzy dandelion. He had to stop and blow all the seeds off before continuing on to check out the big boss' office. :)
Matt and Henry decided to wait at the bridge for us instead of fighting with the stroll on the gravel hill. If you look past Matt, you can see mounds of dirt with many different colors. Matt and I both had the same assumption that these were tailings and were a little put-off by the mess the mining made. Turns out we were both completely wrong.
That is Kennicott Glacier and it is covered in the rocks and dirt it has accumulated over the years. There are a few places closer to the mountains where you can see the ice underneath, but the vast majority of the glacier is covered. The current appearance is much different than when the mine was active - they have journals that mention the town was in a valley because the glacier was so much higher than the town. I wonder if it was as "dirty" back then?
Also a note that I am not being indecisive in my spelling. The glacier was named after a geologist, Robert Kennicott, and uses the spelling of his last name. When the mine and town showed up, there was an error made on the paperwork and they spelled it Kennecott. Since the landmark is based on the town, the National Park Service chose to use the Kennecott spelling.
Back on the road west to Chitina and hopefully somewhere to camp, we stopped at the pizza bus. Matt and Sam have talked nonstop about how amazing this pizza is, so we were super excited that they were still open. I was super excited to try the pizza!
It was ok...
Even Matt thought that it wasn't as good as usual. Which begs the question if it is really all that good or it just tastes amazing because they have been riding their motorcycles all day when they eat it? I'm betting on the latter...
After we ate, we changed the kiddos into their pajamas and finished the long drive back to pavement. It was getting late, so we figured they would crash pretty quickly once we started driving. And we were right. Since they were already out, we decided to drive back to the campground Matt has used before and we lucked out that it still had an open spot. Yay!
Plus being serenaded all night by a waterfall and stream isn't a bad perk.
Sleepyheads in the morning! I obviously still need a little more work on blanket packing, it was a little chilly. Not as bad as last time and the boys slept ok, but my plan of matching their footed pajamas with my footed pajamas wasn't 100% successful. Maybe theirs are thicker material? Hmmm...
Maybe I should just invest in a double sized coleman sleeping bag for all of us. That seems easy enough. It's certainly how Matt and I used to roll back in our car-camping heyday!
Henry was in a great a mood as always. He slept like a champ and woke up ready for another day in paradise! :)
Breakfast options were pretty limited in Glen Allen, but the gas station there has an amazing selection of frozen breakfast food. Jimmy Dean sausages and Corn Pops? Breakfast of champions!
Came home early enough today to have time to hang out and relax at home before getting back to the week day rush. Given how much fun the boys had coloring the other day, I thought they could try painting. And they didn't even seem to mind sharing a big sheet! You can see they both have their unique styles of painting - Thomas' lines versus Henry's short jabs.
Henry really seemed to get into it and only got paint on himself a few times, much more successful than the last time I attempted painting with him.
A great weekend with all three of my boys, can't wait to go back to both Valdez and Kennecott - so much more exploring to do!
