Valdez Harbor is located 75 miles south-east of Anchorage at the north end of Prince William Sound, Alaska. This is a working port for the Alaskan fishing industry and the fishing boats greatly outnumber the pleasure craft. Glacier and wildlife cruises also leave from here to Colombia and Meares glaciers, notably Stan Stephens Glacier and Wildlife Expeditions.
The Great Alaskan Pipeline ends here, stretching 800 miles from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields to Valdez. You can see the huge oil storage tanks across the bay where the tankers load up to take crude oil south to places like Long Beach, California for refining into petroleum. This harbor was the starting point for the ill-fated Exxon Valdez single-hulled oil tanker that ran aground on Bligh Reef on March 24, 1989, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sound and creating an environmental disaster. Captain Hazelwood was drinking on one of the waterfront harbor bars just before his oil tanker departed. I forget which bar, but it has a sign in front for notoriety value. Nowadays, appears the Sound has recovered. It's cool to walk around the harbor and check out the marina boats, the fishing activities and the stores and restaurants.
Look just outside of town on the waterfront and you will see some ruined buildings that are eerie remnants of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake of 9.2 magnitude that decimated the old town of Valdez. This was one of the three largest earthquakes in recorded world history. The earthquake epicenter was in Prince William Sound and the highest tsunami wave of an incredible 67 meters (219 feet) made a direct hit on the old port town of Valdez. The town was rebuilt to the east. read more