Cruises from Valdez
Valdez is an important ice-free port (pop. 4000) in Alaska, at the head of a fjord 24 km from its mouth at Prince William Sound. It was at the mouth of the sound that Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef and spilled 40-120 thousand tonnes of oi in 1989. The port developed as a gold rush town after it was connected by road to Fairbanks in 1899. Read more
The 1964 earthquake severely damaged the town. Valdez is at the southern terminal of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (built 1974-1977), carrying oil from Prudhoe Bay Oil Field on the northern shores of Alaska.
