Valdez to Worthington Glacier

The muse­um por­trays the com­mu­ni­ty’s unique and col­or­ful his­to­ry from Euro­pean explo­ration in the 1700s to con­tem­po­rary oil trans­porta­tion. Per­ma­nent exhibits are accent­ed by tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions of arts and crafts. Major arti­facts include a 19^th cen­tu­ry Fres­nel Light­house Lens, a beau­ti­ful­ly restored 1907 Ahrens ​“Con­ti­nen­tal” steam fire engine and a com­pan­ion 1880s Glea­son & Bai­ley hand-pumped fire engine, salt­wa­ter aquar­i­ums with the…  ...more

This fam­i­ly-run com­pa­ny oper­at­ing out of Valdez will show you the best glac­i­ers, with great cus­tomer ser­vice along the way. On any giv­en day trip you’ll like­ly see huge rafts of sea otters, horned and tuft­ed puffins, cor­morants, hump­back whales, or even bald eagles. Stan Stephens offers two dai­ly tours, one of which fea­tures Colum­bia Glac­i­er, the largest tide­wa­ter glac­i­er in South­cen­tral Alaska.

The Crooked Creek Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter and salmon view­ing plat­form are locat­ed on the out­skirts of Valdez at Mile 0.5 of the Richard­son High­way. Pink and chum salmon return to this clear water stream each sum­mer to spawn with peak num­bers seen in mid-August. Occa­sion­al­ly, black or brown bear can be observed feast­ing on the return­ing fish.

This was the orig­i­nal port and city of Valdez. The city was moved to its cur­rent loca­tion 4 miles down the road after it was dev­as­tat­ed by the 1964 Good Fri­day Earthquake.

If you’ve yet to set eyes on an ice­berg, here’s your chance. This lake sits at the ter­mi­nus of the Valdez Glac­i­er and is often home to chunks of ice that are mak­ing a go of it on their own. It’s a nice place to get unim­ped­ed views of the Chugach Moun­tains and the Valdez Glac­i­er. And with the warm­ing cli­mate, it’s a place worth see­ing before the glac­i­er retracts far­ther than it already has​.In fact, the ice on this glac­i­er has been more or less…  ...more

This pic­turesque fall is fed by snow and ice melt and emp­ties into the Lowe Riv­er after flow­ing under the road. There is a road­side pull­out next to the water­fall that pro­vides easy view­ing of the falls. 

Bridal Veil Falls and the Valdez Goat Trail: This two-mile-long hike is a restored sec­tion of the Trans-Alas­ka Mil­i­tary Pack-train Trail that was the first glac­i­er-free route from Valdez to the inte­ri­or of Alas­ka. There’s a fan­tas­tic over­look about a mile down the trail.

Wor­thing­ton Glac­i­er State Recre­ation Site is made up of 113 acres, and includes one of the most vis­it­ed spots in the Cop­per Riv­er Basin, Wor­thing­ton Glac­i­er. There are trails, pic­nic sites, and pic­nic shel­ters with­in the road­side park, along with water and restrooms. Make sure to stop at mile­post 28.7 on the Richard­son High­way to view this favorite glac­i­er, or take a short walk to the glac­i­er and see it up close!