Valdez, another one-horse town in Alaska, located a little North East from Whittier, is such a cute town.

The last census counted a little under 4000 residents here but they must be spread out because walking through town, it doesn’t look like there are so many people residing here.

Valdez is mainly known for the big oil spill which happened in 1989, whereby the Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled 11 million gallons of oil.

It is amazing how hard everyone worked to overcome this national disaster, as nowadays, there is no trace of evidence that it ever happened.

Arriving with the ship, there is one berth available but that birth is too far away, approx 3 miles out of town. The biggest issue is that there are no busses available here to transfer guests from ship to town and thus the best possible option is to park the vessel right in front of the harbor (by parking I mean, dropping anchor) and transfer everyone ashore with our tender boats. Much better and much faster.

Arriving at the dock, you can stroll thru ‘town’, stop at the 2 restaurants or the very few shops that are there.

But regardless the size, this is an very nice place. One truly gets the Alaskan experience here.

You can also go for a hike as there are several hiking trails.

We only go to Valdez once a year and thus once we are here, better enjoy some good runs.

Last year I ran to the Valdez Glacier Lake, a 15 mile run to a frozen lake which becomes a full-on lake in the summer, but when I was there, it was still frozen and thus time to run over the lake…what an experience.

This year I went into the opposite direction and ran part of the Shoup Bay Trail, a trail west of the town, following the coastline.
Definitely not an easy run, steep, very steep and lots of lose stone, but at least no bears 🙂

Stunning trail though, very scenic and definitely worth it.

Returning back from my run, I had this amazing view of the ship with the snowy mountains in the back, which makes me realize how fortunate I am with this job!