Blueberry Hill, the northernmost point of the coastal Pacific temperate rainforest, is located in the City of Valdez. The Port of Valdez is located on a deep fjord on Prince William Sound, and the heavily-glaciated Chugach Mountains surround it. Temperatures vary from a high of about 17ºC (62ºF) in July to a low of -8.2ºC (17.2ºF) in January. Visitors to the Port of Valdez have a wide variety of opportunities to enjoy the unique landscape of this area.
Among the popular outdoor activities are deep-sea fishing, glacier watching, skiing, ice-climbing, whitewater rafting, and hiking. There are a couple of places in the Port of Valdez that visitors will want to check out.
The Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum gathers indigenous art and artifacts to make one of the biggest collections around. Arriving in Alaska in 1947, the Whitneys traveled to Native villages throughout the area and bought items from the artists for their gift shop. Maxine continued to collect items until the middle 1980s, and she donated the collection to Prince William Sound Community College in 1998. The collection is now housed in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled museum near the college where everyone can come enjoy these fascinating items.
The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a busy place where residents come to share stories of the community's history. In two locations, the museum downtown and an exhibit on the waterfront, the exhibits tell the story of Valdez from the time when the indigenous peoples occupied the area until today, including the 1964 earthquake.
Travelers who want to visit the Port of Valdez or see the Columbia Glacier up close and personal can find a list of scheduled cruises by searching for "Valdez" on the Cruise Compete website.
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