June 7th, 2024 Part One - Area around Valdez

We woke to beautiful blue skies so off we went to check out some of the area.  (I was told that they call this a bluebird day because they do not see bluebirds and rarely see blue skies - LOL!)

This is the view by our campground.  We are behind the brown building:

Heading to the pass, we found this guy just enjoying the green.  He just kept his head down eating:

Leaving Valdez:

Keystone Canyon and Horsetail Falls - the sound was incredible:

This waterfall is 330 feet high and empties into the Lowe River:

Notice the color of the river - it is known as Glacial Silt or Rock Flour 

"Rock flour, or glacial flour, consists of fine-grained, silt-sized particles of rock, generated by mechanical grinding of bedrock by glacial erosion or by artificial grinding to a similar size. Because the material is very small, it becomes suspended in meltwater making the water appear cloudy, which is sometimes known as glacial milk.

When the sediments enter a river, they turn the river's colour grey, light brown, iridescent blue-green, or milky white. If the river flows into a glacial lake, the lake may appear turquoise in colour as a result. When flows of the flour are extensive, a distinct layer of a different colour flows into the lake and begins to dissipate and settle as the flow extends from the increase in water flow from the glacier during snow melts and heavy rain periods"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_flour

A little further up Keystone Canyon is Bridal Veil Falls:

Keystone Canyon:

Drill marks from widening the canyon:

A little history on Keystone Canyon:

• "Trail construction

  In 1898, U.S. Army Captain W.R. Abercrombie and his men began cutting a trail through the canyon and over Thompson Pass, naming it after Pennsylvania's "Keystone State". By 1910, the trail had been upgraded to a sled wagon road and opened to automobiles in 1913.
• Railroad attempts

  Between 1911 and 1916, multiple companies attempted to build a railroad through the canyon to access the minerals of Interior Alaska. The Copper River and Northwestern Railway reached the canyon wall in 1906 and began hand-drilling a 200-foot tunnel, but all attempts ultimately failed. A short section of this hand-cut tunnel can still be seen from the Richardson Highway as you drive through the canyon. Rival railroad corporations also fought a gun battle in the canyon to secure a right-of-way, which is depicted in the silent movie The Iron Trail."

One of the tunnels:

"Cut by hand" - can you imagine?

The area around that tunnel:

A little further - another tunnel:

This looks like a road leading across the river - Hmmm?:

The road and trails:

You can even see where some of those trails are on the mountainside.  Check out all those waterfalls - Oh my!:

We continued our journey to the pass - that will be in Part 2.