June 21

Another day in Paradise! We checked out Valdez Glacier Lake again. What I’ve not mentioned is that we went to Glacier Lake this past Sunday and Monday. On Monday we had the place almost to ourselves. We did meet a local that moved here from southern California. He loves it and thinks the school is outstanding. It is well funded from the large tax base due to the terminal for the end of the Alaskan Pipeline. Anyway Glacier Lake was beautiful and very foggy. There were even a few small icebergs in the lake. On Tuesday morning about 7 am a lake contained by the glacier way above Glacier Lake broke loose and a huge amount of water rushed down overfilling Glacier Lake and causes flooding downstream. Nobody was hurt and as far as I know there was no property damage other than a few guardrails and part of the bike trail. Authorizes came very close to closing the bridge on the Richardson Highway. It was close. If they closed it the only way out with a vehicle would be the Alaskan Ferry System. Lucky for all the bridge was not damaged. We did not find out about the flooding of Tuesday morning until Wednesday morning. We had been out on the Glacier cruise the whole day on Tuesday.

We checked out Glacier Lake and found many new smallish icebergs and where we had been standing on Monday had been well underwater Tuesday morning. The water had come back down to the level we had seen earlier.

Glacier Lake with the icebergs that were not there on Monday

After checking out the flooding we looked for more bears with no luck. Next we went for a hike along a trail that heads out of town following a creek and canyon. As we hiked we either talked loudly or sang. It remined me of my sailing days on the Peconic Bays as a teen singing away. I have never had a singing voice yet loved doing it mostly when I was alone and not need to subject others to my singing voice.

We came to a creek with a beautiful falls. I snapped a few photos and we turned around. The whole day it threatened to rain but it held off until we got back to the campground. As I write this I look out the windows and see a half dozen eagles flying over the campground. They are frequent visitors and are only maybe 20 feet above my head.

Upper part of the same falls

A small falls on the hike