Valdez Things to Do

I've always loved otters, both river otters and sea otters. What a fun-loving animal.

In the Alaskan oceans the sea otters get plenty plump as they spend most of the day dining on tasty crustaceans. They consume about a quarter of their body weight daily. That computes to some ten pounds of sea food. I'd like to see you walk about to the counter at a Red Lobster and ask for ten lbs of prawns and then gobble them down. So yes, you must not only admire their carefree attitudes, but also their voracious appetites.

What a life. Lying on your back all day, eating the bounty of the sea and when you've had your fill, there are countless otter companions with whom you can wrestle around.

If you have an extra 2 days in Alaska, I highly recommend Valdez! You can get there from either Fairbanks or Anchorage via car, motorcoach, etc. It is approximately 6 hours from Fairbanks driving. You can fish for salmon at the local docks or join a charter boat and try getting other tastey treats such as halibut, linkcod, snappers, etc. The scenery is beautiful although often rainy. Be sure to dress in layers including a light rain jacket and sturdy shoes. Look for Orcas, sea otters, eagles, dolphins and more!

Ok, so we've learned that the Alskan waters are a dangerous place to be a sea otter. But surely if you happen to be a stellar's sea lion, you are at the tip top of the food chain. Right?

Wrong. Orcas will also eat steller's sea lions, though they are much more likely to go after the pups than the big bull males. So as you can see in this photo the big bull male has positioned himself to fend off the orca while pushing the young high up the cliffs.

Er. Well not exactly. I guess chivalry has been lost upon the bull sea lion. It's the law of the jungle--every lion for his or her own self.

It was good to see healthy communities of otters in the Alaskan waters. Perhaps you remember the Exxon Valdez tragedy when tons of crude spilled into the Prince William Sound and decimated the water birds, the seals and the sea otters. Maybe you saw images of desperate volunteer workers trying to frantically wipe the crude oil off of the sea otter fur. It was a hopeless task and millions of otters succumbed to the cold ocean water as the crude oil permanently damaged their natural oil producing fur.

When we were in Seward several years ago we did not see sea otters except at the Marine Animal Rescue Center. But I can gleefully report that along the Valdez side of Prince William Sound--the otters are out in strength.

Ok, ok. I exagerated the blissful life of a sea otter in my first tip. Sure they get to eat all the shrimp they want. Yes they have a frolicking good time tussling with one another. And a nap on a floating iceberg is not a bad way to spend a late August afternoon. But, and this is an extremely huge BUT, they are also orca fodder.

Pods of renegade orcas ply the northwestern pacific these days. The renegade orcas seem to have made a game of otter eating. A little forty pound otter is like popcorn to an orca. What an orca really wants is a nice plump many hundred pound seal. Yet, the devient orcas have preyed on the defenseless sea otter.

One minute you are snoozing on an iceberg and the next you are swalled whole by an orca--life is not all sqid and roses for the Alaskan sea otter.

Photo: Hiking to Solomon Lake. The Solomon Lake hike begins from Old Dayville Rd at the Solomon Gulch water project. A fish hatchery is located across the street.
Other hikes in the area include the old gold mining road to Mineral Creek. You can also rent a mountain bike to go to Mineral Creek. Watch out for black bears!

Drive over Thompson pass. You have to if you're driving to Valdez!
The pass has an elevation of 2,678 feet/816m but remains above tree-line. You may find some wildflowers in bloom up here if you hike around a little. I think this would be mainly in July.
Snowfall extremes in Alaska have all been credited to the Thompson Pass station. Record measurements are: 974.5 inches for season (1952-53); 298 inches for month (Feb. 1953); and 62 inches for a 24-hr period (Dec. 1955). Snowpoles along the roadsides mark the road edge for snowplows.

Anadyr Adventures offers 1 - 10 day boat supported kayaking trips to remote and spectacular parts of Prince William Sound. We went on a day trip to Shoup Glacier. This involved a boat transfer to our starting point. This area is abundant with sealife, marine birds, sea otters, and harbor seals. What I remember most from the marine life are the harbor seals. They would bob up and down in the water to get a better look at us. Taking pictures is really not that convenient on a kayak because you need your hands free to paddle and your camera is stowed under the water guard. I enjoyed the experience and didn't worry too much about taking pictures. This trip, like many things in Alaska may seem expensive to you at $150, but it does include the boat transfer and kayak rental.