Labor day in Valdez, AK

Well after a whole year of living in Alaska, we have never gone camping north of Anchorage. Our friends Kari and Ryan invited us to Valdez so we took advantage of the extra long weekend, grabbed our new friends Mac and Jaime Brady and off we went. Unfortunately, the forecast for 4 days was RAIN!!!! Which is no surprise for the area, but we thought we would get lucky. The drive down was beautiful but coming into town it was raining. It did clear up for about an hour and we had patchy blue skies but the rain came back that night while we were trying to enjoy the fire. But the rain didn't stop us. We fished, drove around, walked the boardwalk, and had great camping meals and played tons of games. It sure was fun to take our trailer out again... I sure love that thing :)

This is how we do all our road trips... dogs right in our laps. And you know, there were 4 people in the truck this trip, why both dogs had to always sit together is beyond me.






Waterfalls , waterfalls and more waterfalls. They were everywhere. And none of the pics do them justice. This first pic is of Bridal Veil falls off the highway. It was so beautiful in person, literally breath taking.


These falls were just off the harbor in Valdez. This was especially gorgeous because of the fog settling in up top. Again, the picture doesn't do it justice.




The hour of blue skies in 4 days was so worth the trip. It really was nice to see a break from the rain and fog.


Jamie and I in our matching costco rain gear



It didn't take long before these 2 boys were grabbing their poles and casting away. We fished everyday and had a blast.





Mac was on a roll when it came to realing in dead fish... poor guy hooked more dead fish then real ones... guess that just goes to show how many have already spawned and died and are just lying along the ocean bottom... so gross.



Fishing for Silvers was alot different then fishing for Reds on the Kenai. We came home with 8 silvers, weighing 8-13 lbs. Jeff sure missed having his brother Scotty here, only because he had to fillet the fish now :) Poor Jeff!!!


Valdez definately didn't disappoint when it came to seeing wildlife. I didn't like Valdez just because it wasn't touristy enough... but Jeff on the other hand said, "This is what Alaska is about... the fishing, the bears, and the beautiful scenery!"

This sign definately was placed for a reason...


The first day we were there I spotted some movement in the brush so we pulled over and out came this little black bear. We watched him for 10 min or so and then moved on. It was funny cuz anytime there were people on the side of the road, you know they were looking at something cool, more specifically bears!!!


Rubbing his rear end up against the tree.


Bear sighting #2... momma bear and 2 cubs. This was so cool. One of the cubs was super small, they definitely were only a few months old. It was fun to watch them fish and run around after momma bear. Oh and all the white along the river bed (not the seagulls) is all dead fish... pretty gross huh!!!





First Grizzly bear just 10 feet off the side of the road. This poor guy had a hook stuck in his front paw and would limp around and then run on 3 legs. We got super close, so close Jeff felt bad for him and wanted to toss him one of our fish we caught. But a fed bear is a dead bear in Alaska, so we just let him fend for himself. And he sure did, the next morning this same bear ran Jeff and Mac off the beach trying to fish were they were fishing.


Eating fresh berries, wondering why we were so stinkin close to him!!!

Guess we got too close and he decided to run up the road. But notice how close to the road he is, that's how close he was to our truck... so so so crazy.


Grizzly #2 fishing at 10 at night. This guy was HUGE!!! you could tell he was filling up on fish preparing to hibernate cuz his belly was so big. This was the biggest bear I have seen yet. We watched him from a bridge while he fished and then off into the brush he went. I was nervous to run back to the truck in fear he was going to jump out of the brush right by our truck.




Grizzly #3... it was getting really dark at this point but it was fun to spot this guy with a fish in his mouth.

Jeff and Mac had seen even more bears than this but never had a camera with them. You will never go to Valdez this time of year and NOT see a bear.

Random photos

Enjoying the campfire... in the rain!!!

I promise, I don't dress my dogs like this, just wanted to take a pic. I do however put these coats on when they are outside in the rain cuz they are way too fluffy and hairy to get wet without a dryer close by.


Alaskan's consume more Ice Cream per capita than any other state... we also serve hot soup in our ice cream trucks!!!

We walked around the boardwalk and harbor one night and spotted all these bunnies and wanted to try and catch one... they were way too fast for us!!!

Jeff thought for sure he would show us girls how it was done and he cornered them... little did he know the corner he herded them into was where there bunny hole was... it was hilarious. Nice try babe