The Road To Valdez

If you ever go to Alaska and question if you should go to Valdez, go. The drive in is spectacular. Foggy mountains, steep terrain, ragged cliffs, thick forests, and waterfalls, so many waterfalls. Some are narrow, other are at least 300 ft tall. Two of them are breathtaking, Bridal Veil Falls and Horse Tail Falls.    The mountains are enormous and fog has settled in and is acting like a canopy over the town. There are five glaciers in the Valdez area, some are accessible by car, this is Valdez Glacier, makes you feel very small doesn’t it? See the car on the road, just a little speck.       Others can only be accessed by boat.

Valdez is a small fishing town that happens to be the home of the end of the trans Alaska pipeline. The refinery is nestled into the mountain side on the waters edge. The refinery offered tours until 9/11, then, as part of our national security, the tours were halted.

We settled into our campsite and went down to the city dock. We stumbled on a 2012 Chevy Silverado commercial being filmed. We watched a crane load a boat on the trailer that was hooked to the Silverado. We watched people walking back and forth doing what appeared to be nothing, people stood around and did nothing. For hours people looked busy but nothing was happening. Love the guy with the microphone, what a job he had to have had. Finally with the boat on the trailer, that was hooked to the truck, the dock was hosed down with water, then the truck drove down the dock about 75 ft. When the truck stopped, the crew all started clapping. What acting, the truck knew its lines perfectly. We giggled about the clapping. Were they happy the truck could pull a boat 75 ft or were they glad the hours of work on the dock to drive the truck 75 ft was over? Amazing how many people were there and how much equipment it took to make just this part of the commercial. So, next year look for this truck pulling this boat. The ad for the new 2012 Chevy Silverado. Nice looking truck I will have to say.