Valdez Day 3

Today is our last day in Valdez. Tomorrow we board the ferry for Whittier, AK.
Some thoughts on Valdez:
1 It is perhaps the prettiest spot in AK with the mountains on all sides, and the Prince WilliamSOund in front of the town.
2 The town was shaped by three events:
1 The gold rush of the 1890's brought the first people some of whom stayed and formed a town built on transporting goods inland to Fairbanks and the gold mining communities such as Copper Center.
2 The earthquake of 1964 which destroyed the city of Valdez and killed 31 people on the docks. The largest quake in North America it ws 9.4 in magnitude. The town had to be completely rebuilt 4 mile away from the original site.
3 The building of the Alaska Pipeline which ended at the port of Valdez.

Today we toured the city museum and then took a drive into Mineral Canyon into a deep and steep canyon with a river and numerous glacial waterfalls cascading down its sides. The road was truly 4 wheel drive and we forded many streams. The road at one point seemed to end as the bridge was washed out and the waterfall coming down from the mountain rather swift. But, this intrepid traveler with his Jeep would not be daunted by such a problem (Bev got out of the car and said I could kill myself) so onward I went.
The trip was great and as you can see I am able to write about it so my fate was not the end of my mortality.
Well I hope you enjoy the pictures and you can click on them to enlarge them.
Great view of the ships going into the harbor from here.
Lorne
These pictures are of the Mineral Cyn and the original Valdez Fire Wagon