Exploring Valdez with Colleen Stephens and Faith Harris

Colleen Stephens and Faith Harris join Jennie to share their love of Valdez and all the wonderful things to do there

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Transcript

 Welcome to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co-host and full-time husband, Jay, and I bring you accurate, helpful, and entertaining information about Alaska Travel and life in Alaska. Before we jump in, we want to take a moment to thank our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible.

You can join them at the link in the show notes. Enjoy the show. I. 

 

 Are you thinking about adding Valdez to your Alaska itinerary? You really should think about it, especially if you like those places that not everybody gets to go to where you can have big adventures and see some beautiful scenery and that's what we're talking about today. 

My guests today are Colleen Stephens and Faith Harris. Colleen and Faith both live in the beautiful town of Valdez, Alaska. Colleen is a born and raised Alaskan. She was born in Fairbanks and in the late 1970s, hers family started. The company that she runs today, taking people out to sea. Glaciers and wildlife in Prince William Sound.

So Colleen has lived in Valdez, her whole adult life, and she went from telling tall tales and selling cocoa on the deck of the boat to running the joint. And,  she also loves hiking, trail, running, skiing, and traveling to other cool places and faith. Is originally from the Pacific Northwest, just like me, but that was not far enough north nor rainy enough for her.

So she,  found her way eventually to Valdez as an adult with her whole family, and she is now the executive director of Discover Valdez. Faith and Colleen, welcome to both of you. Thank 

you 

so much. Happy to be here. Yeah, I'm happy to have you here as well. So I'd love to have each of you share a little more about your Alaska story.

 Colleen, let's start with you.  Tell us a little bit, I know I already gave away that you were born in Alaska, but tell us a little more,  about your story and how you came to be in Valdez and your family and your business. 

 So our family really started out, doing, believe it or not, the year I was born, so I can track the age of our business to my age.

Yes. There's a direct correspondence, but in 1971 doing sport fishing tours and at that point in time there were maybe three or four people running boats, one tour boat and a couple sport fishing boats in the town of lds.  For those of you that have been there now, you know that sport fishing boat number is sometimes in the thirties plus,  there's two or three of us doing glacier and wildlife tours.

So I've really had the opportunity to watch tourism, not just in Valdez, but in Alaska grow over the years.  During that period of time, we sometimes had fishing boats and tour boats, just tour boats. And  we currently at this point in time are yielding the sport fishing to those that are the experts in the area and specializing with two boats doing glacier and wildlife sighting.

Love it. And Colleen,  can you tell everybody what the name of your business is? 

Oh, absolutely.  After many different versions in the last 54 years, currently are operating as the Stan Stephens Glacier and Wildlife Cruises. Love it. Perfect. 

Okay. Thank you. Faith,  tell us a little more about your getting to Alaska story.

Ooh. Yes. So do you want the beginning or the most recent version? 

I think you tell 

whatever version you want. Let me just say that I actually, when I was first interested in coming and relocating to Val, these, I drove through this most gorgeous pass and I had already been to Denali, but this was literally like.

The most epic journey that I had ever done on a road trip. I was all by myself in my little car in the middle of winter and I was shocked at how clear, clear the roads were.  I was really nervous and excited 'cause I was going to a job interview.  Driving down through the path you drop from this like 14,000 feet within half an hour or even maybe a little longer.

 Straight down to almost zero. And throughout that there were these canyon walls through this keystone canyon that were just gorgeous. And on either side, these natural formations of ice crystals that were just, created from these waterfalls that were just epic. As Val, these is called the Land of Waterfalls, and I was just blown away.

As you enter into this area, there's this gorgeous. Overlooking the ocean and you get to see this bay that's just breathtaking and completely surrounded by a wall of mountains on every side. And I literally have never seen anything so beautiful. And that is how I fell in love with Bobby.

I love it. 

That's awesome. Okay. I've gotta say, I think you both know this and,  our visit, our listeners will know soon, but I really love Valdez and I'm not just saying this 'cause you're here.  It's one of my favorite towns in Alaska and I will also say that,  everyone listening knows already that I work as a tour director in the summer and the two week tour that I.

Do that ends in Valdez and we take,  cruise with you, Colleen, literally with you, like you usually pick us up at the hotel and take us over there.  I, that often is what the guests say was their favorite part of the entire two week trip going all over Alaska and the Yukon. So this is a cool place.

Alright. I would love to have you both since this is your home.  Share a little bit about why Valdez is special and unique, in Alaska. I don't know,  Colleen, do you wanna start and then faith? 

Sure, I will. I will start out and,  I, I think the. The way I try to describe it to folks when they either call on the phone or I have an opportunity to talk face to face about someone trying to decide whether it's to bring a person or themselves or a group to Valdez.

Yep. Is really that you have to, in order to come to Valdez, you have to have the extra time in your Alaskan itinerary to be able to do the drive from either Anchorage Fairbanks or if you're coming in from Whitehorse, if you're driving all the way to Alaska. Yep. You need that extra time, but that extra time is a hundred percent worth it.

The drives to get to and from are days of attractions and activities themselves. You need a couple night stay to stay in Valdez, but what that does is it puts you in a community of 35 to 4,000 residents the number of travelers, we only have about. 500 hotel rooms, 500 RV sites. Yeah. And so you're, the density of folks traveling and spending the night with you is much lower.

And that means when you take a boat to the glacier, you're the only boat probably that you're gonna see when you're in there. Yeah. Or you might see one passing, but the time you stay there is just, same thing with kayaking. It's one group at a time.  A couple rafts on the river,  at a fishing site.

It's a few boats. And that really heightens your experience of Alaska. 

And so 

I don't wanna say there were the road less traveled, but you need to have your time in an Alaska itinerary to include Veldez. And if you have that time, you're going to take your Alaska experience to a whole new level because of that intimacy that the community can bring to you.

I totally agree with that. Faith, do you wanna add anything on that point? 

I do, I just, I'd love to piggyback off of what Colleen just said. I think the one thing I've noticed about a lot of the smaller communities is that they have they have some of the same things to offer, but when I think about Valdez, it's a co, it's a condensed version of every single thing that you could possibly want to see in Alaska all in one place. It's a very authentic Alaska. It's very, it's got that rural dynamic. So what Colleen said, very intimate experiences. Everything that you're doing, it definitely feels like you are literally in nature.

There's not a tourism element about this town in the same way that you might find in, more of a tourist destination town, but you're still gonna get all the amenities that you're looking for, which I think is what's beautiful about it. We don't have a Costco, but we have everything else, all the amenities that one could want.

Yes. I a lot of people traveling, especially if they're road traveling, they wanna know that they have all the amenities that they're still able to get this rural very, remote Alaskan town, but it's on the road systems. Many benefits to that. 

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Love it.

Okay, so since we've been talking a little bit about how awesome Valdez is and how it takes a little extra time to get there than some other places in Alaska can you tell everybody a little bit about bit how people get to Valdez? What are the options for getting there? I don't know. Do you wanna start at this time?

Faith. 

Yeah, absolutely. So we have a few different ways to get to Valez. One of them is through the road system that Colleen had mentioned.  They say maybe five and a half hours.  The roads are generally really clear, but,  there's so much beauty and there's so many things to see  along the way that you really do have to make that trip a little bit longer.  Expect to spend at least an additional hour or two taking pictures along the way. Oh yeah. Also, yeah, for sure. Also do have a new, , system with Raven. They're a commercial airline, you can receive,  two flights a day.

I think they're 30 minute flights to and from Anchorage. And we also do, we're on the Alaska Marine Highway system, so there's also, the most beautiful ferry in the world. 

Yeah. Yep. Awesome. Anything you wanna add to that, Colleen, about getting there? No, 

I think,  I think one of the things that makes it unique is that you can combine all three of the means in which faith just mentioned together.

So you can cruise in, drive out, you can make loops, you can put those part parts and pieces together., I. And then if there are travelers who may be choosing to cruise to Alaska for the first time, we do have a few cruise partners that do ports of call in Valdez as well during the summer. Yeah. 

And by all means, that becomes another way based on water to come to Valdez if hopping on a motor coach or driving your own, RV or car is not in your wheelhouse, 

yep. 

Absolutely. Love it. Okay, we're gonna take a short break and when we come back we're gonna talk a little bit about things to do in Valdez. 

   📍 

Hi everyone. Jennie here. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far. Just wanted to remind you that you can save 10% in my online shop with the Code podcast, and in there you'll find Jay's amazing. Beautiful Alaska stickers and also lots of digital products like my on demand workshops and my Alaska Travel Planners and my done for you itineraries.

So check it out@shop.ordinary-adventures.com and save 10% with the code podcast. The link is in the show notes. 

We are back with Colleen Stephens from Stan Stephens CREs in Valdez and Faith Harris from Discover Valdez, and we're talking about the wonderful Alaskan town Valdez.  I would love to now get into a little bit about some of the things that visitors can do,  while they're visiting Valdez. And,  it does take a little extra time to get there, so it's good to know a little more about,  what people can do once they're there.

So maybe,  colleen, let's start with talking a little bit about Stan Stephens specifically, and then after that we can talk about kind of other things,  in Valdez as well.  Can you tell us a little bit, Colleen, about what the different options are, first of all, for tours that you operate?

Sure. People can take Glacier and Wildlife cruises throughout Alaska, Southeast, south Central. There's multiple ports where people can choose, and one thing I always tell folks is don't just do one. I agree. Yeah.  Every port is uniquely different and so as you're going somewhere, being able to get on a boat a multiple places is completely worth it.

 What makes us a little unique and a little,  in, in our mind stand out is when you get on a boat out of lds, you're typically in very calm water. Yeah.  And that's whether you're paddling a kayak or you're on our boat, you're in calm water except for a rare day.  You are able to really interact and see not just amazing glaciers, super exciting and fun wildlife in its natural environment, but we're able to travel right next to the shoreline.

 So you're literally seeing the mountains rise out of the sea. And that allows us to bring in stories from early explorers, gold mining,  first peoples of Alaska, oil shipping, commercial fishing, depending on what we see and what activity of life in coastal Alaska we see during our tour. We bring that in as well.

Yeah. And all of that is amplified by a pretty much all local or all family staff.  And so they're either someone that has some connection to our family and or most of the time, all Valdez residents, if not all Alaskans. Yep. And. That's unique. It's, you don't get that everywhere. Yeah.  You know that we get to talk in the summer about what it's like to live with 300 inches of snow a year when we actually get it.

Those are, that didn't tell you our tours, but that's the flavor of our tours. Yeah. If you want, I can go on what the two different routes are that we do. 

 Think we have. I think that would be great. 'cause that's something people ask about  okay. And one other thing I wanted to just break in with when we're talking about.

Like day trip cruises. Sometimes people get, if someone is like on a cruise ship and then they are also taking a day trip cruise, that like language can be confusing. So one thing I wanted to just mention is that people ask me a lot like, Hey, I'm going on a cruise. Is it worth it to go on a smaller ship day cruise?

Whether that's in Valdez or somewhere else, and I feel like yes, because the smaller boat can go to so many of these places that the big ship can't get into. So I just wanted to mention that. But yes, I think talking about the two different routes that you have, Colleen would be great. Okay. 

And I would agree we have lots of folks that get off a ship and do a day a one of our tours and our day boat operations.

Yeah. And are ecstatic that they do because you just have a different interaction with Alaska. Totally. At a closer level.  We do two different itineraries, basically out of Valdez, two main ones.  So if you stay a couple nights in Valdez, you're there for a whole day and have the ability to get on the water for six or seven and a half hours.

 Those are the length of our two tours. And so our shorter tour, which is six hours, goes out to Columbia Glacier, and Columbia is the largest glacier in Prince William Sound, but it's in the middle of a huge retreat and has been since the early eighties.  What that means is we never know really how close we're gonna get to the face of Columbia Glacier, and that means the real attraction at Columbia is that glacier facing the distance in these massive icebergs that you don't see anywhere else in Alaska,  and quantity of ice that you don't see anywhere else.

We have boat captains from other locations come and enjoy a trip to Columbia and they're amazed what our operators get to go through on a daily basis. Yeah.  So that's our shorter tour.  The longer tour, seven and a half hours goes out to Mears Glacier and Mirrors is a smaller, more stable glacier. Still calving and losing lots of that ice off the face. So that big plummeting boom and echoing boom that everyone's wanting to see when they see a glacier in Alaska. Yeah. It allows us to get a quarter mile from the glacier face every day. So that longer tour, we know that's much more predictable how close we get to the face.

Yeah.  The other unique difference in the two is just that both trips have the chance to see seals and sea otters and sea lions doll porus, humpback or orca whale. Sometimes maybe a thin or a say whale,  on land goats and bears. They both have great opportunities, but that longer tour just sometimes has that leading edge because it's going farther and traveling farther into the sound.

Yeah. So yes, we have the trip that's seven and a half hours to mes and six hours to Columbia, and those are the unique differences between the two. 

Yeah. And Colleen, can you say a little more about the icebergs and Columbia Glacier and like a little more about why that,  that ice situation is unpredictable and why that matters for where you can go?

Yeah. So Columbia Glacier is losing. Probably on average, close to 8 million tons of ice off its glacier face every day. So glaciers are constantly like a river moving forward,  and flowing. But Columbia is losing more ice daily than it is able to generate up in its accumulation zone up in the mountains right now.

So every year, Columbia's getting farther and farther back into the chug edge mountains. Yeah, but it's doing it at such a rate that Glaciologists has, haven't really ever been able to study before. So when you go out there, you're really part of the study crew. Yeah. As a glaciologist. Yeah. You're learning what that glacier's doing is we are all learning it and so are the scientists.

 It's losing icebergs that literally when they're. About a 10th of the iceberg above water. And what above water is bigger than our 90 foot boat.  They're massive.  And if they're not huge, the quantity of smaller icebergs are filling that entire bay. And it just, you can get through it.

You just need a few more hours to accomplish it. Yes.  A lot more hours sometimes. Yes.  And so as, again, it's, you have this embayment where you have ice. Popping up in, almost every corner of the bay that's being left behind. And then that massive quantity of glacier ice that's come off the faces of Columbia.

Yeah. That it's still blowing my mind, what you said about the amount of ice that is coming down every day. Even though I like know that intellectually, but when you think about it, it's like, what? That's just absolutely bananas. 

It's amazing and it's a little slower than it used to be. So yeah, add that to the equation too.



Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing about all that. Okay. One more question about the glacier cruising. I feel like there may be people I. Who heard that? And they're like, wait, what? I'm gonna go on a boat around icebergs. Is that okay? Is that okay to do that?  And I know that it is.  But yes, just wanted to, do you wanna add anything about that or should we just say it's safe?

It's fine. Your captains are good. 

I would love to say just those things, but the things when people have hesitation and they tell us is a, we remind them that the captain wants to make it back as well. So he or she are not going to do anything that is going to cause,  harm or problematics.

 But really our boats are designed for what we. We are doing. So yeah. When we built our two boats, we knew that we would be pushing ice. We knew that we would be going through glacier ice. So structurally they are built to be able to accomplish that.  Yep. The, all the way down to the metal that the propellers are made out of are stronger and sturdier.

 And so all of those things go into the design of the tour, the design of the vessel, and the day to, to have everyone come home safely. 

Yeah. 

Perfect. 

Okay. Love it.  So Faith and Colleen, 'cause you have, , been there a long time, Colleen.  I would love to have you share a little more about some of the other things that people can do in Valdez and I'm gonna just say that I think this Glacier cruise,  that we've been talking about.

Is 100% a must do in Valdez, in my opinion. But of course there are lots of other things.  Let's talk about some of those. Faith, do you wanna jump in with some other fun stuff? 

Absolutely. You know, Jennie, one thing that I think is pretty amazing that I didn't realize until I had been here for a little while is how dynamic,  the activities are year round.

 We have all kinds of accessible things, the glaciers, we have mountains on every side, abundant wildlife. We actually have a very strong concentration of wildlife. In fact, when I went on 10 Stephens Glacier and Wildlife cruise, I saw more. Wildlife than I think I'd ever seen in all of Alaska. Just on that one trip.

I'm talking about 20 plus port doll corpuses. I saw what 30. I think it was like 30 orca whales. We saw hundreds and hundreds of fighting and sparring sea lions, innumerable amount of sea otters. I was blown away at how much wildlife there is. And in this town you will see so much of it and it's just located, gorgeous, giant bald eagles down at the docks just hanging out.

 It's just amazing. We have such an abundant wildlife, but we also have great local life as well. It's a very. Fun small town that's just bursting with,  small town flavor. All of our,  our community members are very passionate about expressions. You'll find a lot of different mediums of art and culture as well as our history, which is absolutely amazing.

Let's even get into the history of this place, 1964 quake, our Exxon Valdis, oil spill, the gold rush we have such a dynamic history. It's just very exciting. 

Yeah. Yeah, what can we talk, what this is for both of you? Can we talk a little bit about bears? Because in addition to like marine, wildlife,  people are pumped about seeing bears and I have seen a bear,  on last summer on one of your tours, Colleen, we saw bear and that was pretty cool.

But what are some other ways that,  some good options for seeing bears close to Valdez?

 I, one of the things I like. Even a resident, we do this, we have a fish hatchery that is in route,  across the bay and you can drive straight to it. , no matter what time of year you're in, Valdi is visiting the fish. Hatchery is a must to me. You have a chance to learn about commercial fishing.

They have a guided walking tour. If it is pretty much mid-June on, there's typically some salmon coming back upstream. Nice. And we're not the only ones that like to eat salmon in the area. So you're gonna see sea lions, you're gonna see sea otters, you're gonna see bears down on the shore fishing those salmon.

Yes. And  it's all in a realm as long as you,  don't. Get out of your vehicle and approach too closely that it's very safe for you to be watching the bear in its natural environment in that fishing situation. Same with sea lions, sea otters, eagles, yeah.  All sorts of different folks that are right there.

And that's something that, you can go check it out in the morning and go back in the evening. Yeah. And if you're there a couple days, go more than once. 'cause as I said, for locals, we're often over there two or three times a week just to see what we can see along the way. 

Yeah. Love it. That's great. What about kayaking and hiking? That's two questions. So let me walk that back. Let's start with kayaking.  What are some of the like places or ways that people can,  do kayaking, welder in Valdez? Either of you can answer. Yeah, actually. 

Oh, sure. I'll answer. . I'm really excited about the amount of kayaking, paddle boarding, canoeing, basically any type of paddling that can happen in this community.

It's just amazing.  So the water itself out there in the bay is very, it's almost like glass for the most part, which is surprising because you, it almost feels like you're looking at a lake. And yet it's the ocean. It's because of the way that the, the topography is where these mountains surround us.

 You're seeing that kind of protection. So it really literally feels like that. And you can go a little bit farther out and then you're on the open ocean and going through the bay there. In the Prince William Sound, it's, you can travel anywhere, in saltwater, but we have a ton of beautiful,  freshwater areas that you can go as well.

Yeah, say. Can you say a little more about that? 'cause I think the lake is super interesting also. Yeah. Are you referring to the Valez Glacier Lake? I was, yes. Oh, but you can tell me about any lake. Oh, 

I would love Valez. Glacier Lake is amazing. I have had a chance to kayak on it once so far.

Although being a newbie, it's one of those things, you have to be really aware of this. This place is beautiful and it's wild.  But it also. Can be something that you wanna make sure that you have information on safety and understand how to do it. I think I would suggest,  visiting with one of the guides and asking them to take a guided tour.

 If not somebody who has a lot of experience on Valdis Glacier Lake because it's a living, breathing thing that is constantly changing and shifting and can be epically beautiful, like nothing you've ever seen in Serenity.  But yet in the next moment can be very volatile. And it's very unique because when you set your hand, like there's little pieces of wood that will.

Float in the water and you think they almost look like tree branches or something, but you reach out and you can just literally lift it outta the ground. But they stay absolutely stationary, which is very interesting. Yeah. What I've heard is it has a lot to do, with the types of glaciers the formations of the glacier that create literally no like flow of water, in those areas.

Yeah, it's a, it's such an interesting place and I agree with you that I think having a guide is really important. 'cause yeah, it's a lake, but like the presence of glaciers and icebergs makes everything.

Needing a little more no local knowledge than you might otherwise. 

And I think Jennie the key is you can do paddling in Veldez no matter what your level is. Yeah. So there are three hour trips, there are seven hour trips, but those seven hour trips are boat supported. So you're also not paddling for seven hours.

You're still only paddling for about three. All of our guides are happy to teach you, you can learn whether you're. Paddling in the ocean or paddling in the freshwater lake, whichever itinerary you have that capability of learning as you go. 

Yeah. And one thing just for folks listening that we are saying we've, it has come up a few times about valez related to the water.

Is that because it is in this very protected location?  That's a big advantage, especially for people who are like. New to being on the water or,  that isn't as comfortable.  It's a great place for beginners  things like this. Yeah. Awesome. Okay, so what about hiking? I know Colleen, I know you are a hiker.

Faith. Are you a hiker also? I sure am. Okay. I'd love to hear about a few,  of your favorite hikes around veldez. That's something people often are super interested 

in. I think often people think of hiking as a date commitment. But what's I think really neat is from the core of Valdis, you can do something that could take you 15 minutes and you have beautiful views of the ocean.

Yeah.  To a commitment of a seven to 10 mile hike.

Yep. 

So you have all of those options. You have some that will give you terrain and incline and inclined, and you have some that are relatively flat. So pretty much anyone that wants to get out and do something has that capability, and all of those trails are accessible.

For no fees. Yeah. , and so you can just go pick up a map at Discover Valdis,  or find them online and get that one that matches both your timeframe as well as your activity level that you're looking for. I think many of them have an ocean feature. Some have a mountain climb, some have historical gold mines in the back of them.

So you really have that chance to pick and choose what meets your desires. 

Yeah, we do 

have folks that rent electric bikes that you can use on some of the trails that are a little more like roads as well. So even if you might not be able to. You could hop on the electric bike and cover some of the territory as well.

Fun. Yeah, and I think one of the neatest newest things is we have a whole new trail development that's taking place on a hill that's just behind our ferry terminal. And by mid to next summer, that should mostly be done. We as winter guests are getting to, play around and learn what some of the developments are up there in some of the lookouts and how they're doing some of the new trail development.

But as they work again on that next summer, it's going to be a pretty amazing place. For not just us to recreate as residents, but for visitors to be able to get to as well. 

Oh, that's really cool. Love it. Faith, do you have a favorite hike? A Rand Feld East. I have a ton of favorite hikes students. 

It's so different here coming from the Pacific Northwest, and the hikes that you would do would be like, okay, you plan, you get your boots on, you know you're gonna be going to this one place.

You get your map out and you're doing some long endurance traveling to get there. And then you park and it takes. Sometimes you can spend all day 10, 15 hours.  These are very different. We're literally in this flat bowl, and so you've got,  this town in, what is it? Maybe a five mile circumference.

 Go over the Dock Point Trail where it takes you around the bay and shows you the gorgeous waterfront area. Then climb to the top of that hill and look out 360 degrees around the community.

 Go back down to the bottom within 45 minutes to an hour and. Zip across town to another one where you can go out by the water and go out onto the flats, near Gold Creek and see that, or is swimming,  and then turn around and decide, okay, I'm gonna spend the rest of my day up at Mineral Creek and go climb up the hill there.

And they've got a waterfall and it's just so each one of them is different, but you're literally just. In one area. It's just so shocking to me that you're in one town. You can do all these different things at once and yeah. Still to wrap it up and walk from your hike over to someplace that you wanna eat dinner.

Totally. It's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Okay. So Faith and Colleen, are there any other, I know there's a bajillion things to do in Valdez, but thinking about visitors, is there anything else you wanna share that's a great,  thing for visitors to do that we haven't talked about yet? 

I would love to tell you guys about,  our museums that we have here.

 It's amazing. We have three museums, three main museums here.  But our Valez museum and historical archive has two different branches and each one of them has a different thing. One of them talks a lot about the old town. It shares all the story, the history of our old town.

 If you go back and hear the story of it, we actually were, originally located a whole, a few miles,  what I'm trying to think of. It was west or east of us here where we are now. And,  they took a lot of the relics from that and share that history. And then the main museum itself talks a lot about everything from the Alaska native,  culture that we had here, that, that have our soup people and,

we also have,  I think they have a pretty extensive version of Old Town in there as well, but then they go into the Exxon Valdez oil spill and give you a lot of information there. And our,  our Whitney museum itself is actually very impressive. They have the largest collection of Alaska native art,  and culture in the actual state.

So that's something to check out. We have an amazing collection of taxidermy animals as well.

Love it. Thanks for bringing that in.  Faith, Colleen, anything else you wanna add? 

 I think I would just encourage folks to allow some time to, bob and both are fantastic breweries that we have,  as well as some of our eateries in town. And 

yes, 

 If you are here in the winter, it's more fixed buildings, but in the summer we get lots of food trucks and they're all locally owned.

And  I can't really say I have a favorite necessarily, but what stands out is every single one of them , is locally owned, locally run, , usually sourcing lots of their supplies. Locally as well, which makes it,  pretty unique. I always laugh that we have more coffee stores and we have gas stations in Valdez, so we can definitely keep you energized.

Yes, a couple, one micro brewery, one nano brewery, and then lots and lots of different restaurants and food trucks and  definitely getting some of that local flavor when you're in town. I would encourage as well. 

I agree. And you know what, that is a perfect segue because I was gonna ask you both about your favorite restaurants in town as we move towards wrapping up here.

 So Colleen, do you wanna say anything else about restaurants and food trucks before we go to faith in that vein? I will let Faith 

Take it on. Okay. 

I would say they're all my favorite, Jennie. I know they are. I, they're, every one of them is uniquely different and we're, there's some places you go and you're looking for food and you're like, oh, I'm looking for the most luxury, elegant dining establishment, or I'm looking for some place that's this or that, and we really just have.

An arsenal of completely unique elements including just the best supply of food trucks you could even want in the state. 

Yeah. 

And knowing that, you'd mentioned one thing earlier, and I didn't get to say it, just piggyback, piggybacking off of all the things we talked about, bellies, you can walk from one place to another.

So when you're getting your dinner, you wanna go get a cup of coffee or everything like that. But it does rain here. And we're actually located in a rainforest.  It's a microclimate.  Wait a minute. It rains in Valdez. What? 

Just a little bit. Complete and total shock. I know. 

Bringing that up I is an important point.

That's one of the beauty, the beautiful things about bellies that I have found is that, you plan ahead, plan that things sometimes shift a little bit based on the weather. Yeah, to be prepared, to be flexible. This is about Alaska. You might not wanna completely toss out your watch in case you wanna go, on Stan Stephens tour and be on time.

Yeah. Yeah. Put it to the  side and just live in the moment and let the rain fall. And sometimes that's the perfect chance to go see the, the wildlife or totally to go get a hot cup of coffee. But just knowing that's something to expect and be prepared.  Part of experiencing Alaska as a traveler is there's gonna need you, you'll need to be flexible about.

One other thing along those lines that I really love doing in Valdez and encourage my guests to do when I'm on tour is just to, and this might just be completely obvious if you live there, but.  Like many other, coastal Alaska towns just walking around by the harbor and down by the docks, especially when like charter fishing boats are coming back.

I just think that's a really cool thing to do there. That's also completely free. I. 

Oh man, it is literally amazing. Yeah, when I came, I think I have some videos of it. It might've been early in May.  And the fishermen are starting to clean their fish, and they throw them down on these large ramps and these massive bald eagles.

The mom, the babies. Yeah.  The families, like all different sizes and ages of bald eagles are just hanging out on those ramps, just nibbling and playing and fighting. I've never seen them up. Close in such an epic shot and you just get to sit there and watch them. Yeah. Along all the wildlife that's in the water.

Yep. I love it too when someone is like eating, in that same area, like where the food trucks are, whatever. They're just walking by and they're like, is that an eagle? Is that six eagles? Yep. Pretty much. Yeah. Colleen, did you wanna add anything? 

I would just add, one thing that I think.

Not everyone who visits our community has the opportunity to find and or sometimes even know exists. And that is, we have some amazing artists in town. 

We have an art co-op where many of them have there are different pieces of art and different styles of art available that they've put together.

There are also a few galleries right along the harbor. And then both of our breweries feature local artists on a routine basis. And to be able to take something home that is made in the town that you're visiting is unique sometimes and not pretty. Something cool that's manufactured elsewhere. And so I would say that if you're looking for something like that, Veldez definitely has some artists who are reaching out to be able to share their stories and their their art.

Yes. Absolutely. Okay. I know we, anything else about food before we go to the last question? Restaurants talked about food trucks and how Valdez has great food, which it does. Anything crucial people note about, need to know about that we didn't mention yet? Yes. I just thought of one, 

Jennie. Okay.

Lay it on me. So one of the things I think when I was talking about being flexible, that's something that I think for all Alaska, this is important to know, is yeah, when you're traveling, you might expect them not to be open all year round. So we do have seasonal, we have a lot of seasonal shops.

We also have a lot of seasonal restaurants. So we have our solid ones that are established here that are full-time year round, but we have so many more that happen during the summer. So just being aware as a traveler that's what you're looking at is, check out whether or not these people are actually year round in service.

Yep. 

Yep. Absolutely agree with that. I'm gonna just say that I personally am a fan of the potato.

Oh, I love it. It's great. And the fat mermaid and the food trucks. Yeah. Alright, cool. Colleen and Faith, as we move towards wrapping up here, I would love to have you share with everybody what is one. Piece of advice that you have for first time Alaska Travelers. Faith, do you wanna start? 

I would definitely say that.

Not to be scared. And I know that sounds weird, but when you're down in the lower 48 and you're deciding that you wanna explore Alaska as a whole, there is such a stigma behind it. This last frontier with a bear on every street and around every corner, and and wildlife and maybe not even public roads.

And do they have. Running water in bathrooms, yeah. There, there's an energy behind it that's very curious and mysterious. And we are not an island and we are actually connected to a body of land. Yeah. And so knowing that. It's intimidating. Contact, discover all these, we'd be happy to help you gain all the information so that you feel informed and then confident in your excursion.

Because there's so many opportunities here. You can't step onto Alaskan soil and not fall deeply in love. I think that's the truth. 

Yeah. 

But, but just knowing that it's something that can be a little overwhelming and intimidating, but there's a ton of resources. Jennie, you're doing an amazing job giving those, and I think that thank you.

We're always willing help as well. 

Love it. Okay. Colleen, how about 

you? I think probably the biggest thing is you plan is allow time if you, yeah. My, and this is more general Alaska advice, but if you are coming to Alaska and you don't have a ton of time, choose an area and do it well. Yeah. If you have a lot of time, then spread yourself out and almost like if you're doing construction, you wanna measure twice before you cut.

Yeah. You always wanna measure the distance on your highways in Alaska more than once, so you know what you're taking on for the day. Yeah. Totally doable. Totally accessible. Sometimes the wildlife is the biggest thing you encounter along the way. Not traffic, but just measure a couple times and take it all on and enjoy your journey as you go.

I love it. 

Before we go, I want to just mention that Colleen and Stan Stephens Cruises are offering a 10% discount to listeners of the Alaska Uncovered Podcast.  You can book online and I'll put the link in the show notes and the code is AK uncovered, so use that to save 10%.

Thank you so much for offering that, Colleen. 

Colleen Faith, thank you so much for coming on to the pod and  📍 sharing about Valdez and your love of Valdez in Alaska. It was wonderful having you both. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thanks, Jennie. 

Thank you, Jennie.