As the gold rush faded, Valdez became a supply port and transport hub. In 1919 the Richardson Highway — Alaska's first road — linked it to Fairbanks, and the deep, ice-free harbor kept the town working year round: it is the northernmost ice-free port in North America. The mountains that wall it in catch staggering snow, and the Sound beyond it fills with calving ice.
The land around Valdez is the draw. The Columbia Glacier, the second-largest tidewater glacier in North America, calves icebergs into the Sound just west of town; glacier and wildlife cruises run beneath the peaks. Inland, Thompson Pass is one of the snowiest places in the United States — three hundred-plus inches a year — and a world-class heli-ski destination, while Keystone Canyon drops the threads of Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls beside the old gold-rush trail. In 1977 the first tanker left the marine terminal here, the southern end of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
Why People Visit Valdez, AK
People come to Valdez for the scale of it — tidewater glaciers calving into the Sound, peaks straight off the harbor, and snow measured in feet. It is a gold-rush town turned glacier port, the Little Switzerland of Alaska, rugged and beautiful and welcoming at the end of the road from Anchorage.
