13 August, 2002

Sunny skies......

This morning, the sun was out, shining brightly. A very pleasant change from yesterday.

One of the first sights of the day was a mother black bear and her cub roaming through the brush just beyond our camp site. Iım sure she is a regular fixture to the area as I noticed many signs warning campers to keep food locked up due to bears.

We headed into the town of Valdez where we split up and went our separate ways for the day. Several of the REU students went kayaking for the day. I decided to just wander around town and take in some of the sights.

Valdez sits at the end of Prince William Sound, and is surrounded on three sides by very steep mountains. The Alaska pipeline ends in Valdez, but we were not able to take a tour of the tank facility as tourists are no longer aloud in the area.

Life Is Good

DT

Looking south from Valdez across Prince Williams Sound. The large tanks are storage for oil delivered through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Valdez is the end of the pipeline, and it is loaded on tankers for transport.