THURSDAY, AUGUST 15

THURSDAY, AUG 15:

     Woke up to bright blue, sunny skies!  We had a second Major Marine tour booked, this one up in Whittier, about 90 minutes north, up just off the Turnagain Arm and the doorway to Western Prince William Sound.   We had another 2-for-1 coupon for this tour, and even though in some respects it would be similar to our Kenai Fjords trip, we believed that it would be different enough to warrant doing it.  We hadn’t done any water activities in Prince William Sound, and how can you leave Alaska, especially after spending 3 months there, without doing some sightseeing in PWS??!  Besides, it will no doubt be our last boating adventure to tidewater glaciers – one of our favorite things up here.

     So we headed north on the Seward Highway.  This time a gorgeous ride that we didn’t get to experience when we drove south to Seward a few days ago because of the heavy rain.  Snow-covered mountains around every turn, and then the beautiful clear turquoise waters of Turnagain Arm as we arrived there.   Portage Lake was especially breathtakingly beautiful with her floating icebergs from her namesake’s glacier.

 

      The next leg of our day’s adventure, once we reached the Portage Valley area, was getting in line to enter the Whittier tunnel.  This is a 2.7 mile tunnel blasted out of the Chugach Mountains.  It’s the longest highway tunnel in North America, and was originally built in the early 1940’s as a railroad supply tunnel to the new military installation in Whittier, connecting western Prince William Sound with Portage Valley and thence to Anchorage and the interior.   The tunnel was updated only in 2000 to accommodate vehicles . . .  saved millions of dollars by using the one existing tunnel.  Cars, trucks, etc. ride over the railroad tracks one-way on a 15-minute alternating schedule.  And twice a day, no cars are allowed while the train goes through.  The interior walls have never been surfaced – it’s pure rock.  Quite an experience travelling through! 

       Whittier was just a tiny, mostly Native, village until WWII.  Then, because of Japan’s presence on the Aleutian Islands, the U.S. chose Whittier as a secret base to house all kinds of big ships . . . secret because of its isolation and because of its wretched weather – any plane flying over would likely just see a bank of clouds.  I think the Ranger said that the annual rainfall here was well over 150 inches, and lots of storms.  And strategic because of its ice-free harbor.  So the military really built up this area in the 1940’s, and several thousand people lived here.

      But then it was devastated in the 1964 earthquake, and only a couple hundred folks now live here.  They almost all live in an old military barracks that’s been converted to apartments/condos!  A unique arrangement you’d never find in the Lower 48!  The school is right in back of that building,  and when they have several feet of snow on the ground, the students & teachers go downstairs in the building and then through an underground entrance to get to the school!

 

 

That building, plus another military barracks that’s deserted and only a shell, and an impressive beautiful new hotel & restaurant are the only real buildings in this community.  The rest of the harbor town is made up of various little kiosks and small structures along the harbor which offer boat tours, kayaking tours, etc.  And the Ferry terminal (a ferry crosses PWS from Valdez – a beautiful cruise if it’s clear weather).  

 

  Charming, really.  The harbor was full of pleasure and fishing boats – mostly from the Anchorage area.   Our Ranger said that this is the 3^rd busiest port in Alaska!  

 

 

       As we got under way, we saw more of the same marine animals.   A whole raft of those cute little otters this time. 

      But for us, it was the stunningly gorgeous scenery in every direction which gave us such pleasure and satisfaction.  The Sound is surrounded by the rugged Chugach Mountains, and glaciers abound.  They call this area of PWS “Little Glacier Bay” because of its many glaciers.  The sun just sparkled on the them.  And the water on this sunny day was the most exquisite turquoise.  We were so blessed to have a sunny day like this for our last salt water tour!  Even our Ranger said several times how lucky we were to have this beautiful day to cruise the Sound.

 

                                                

 

We enjoyed their salmon, prime rib buffet.  Passed it up on our Kenai Fjords trip, but indulged this time.  Really surprisingly good!

     Went up into Harriman Fjord to get up close to Surprise Glacier.  Our Ranger (Chugach National Forest ranger, not a national park ranger) gave us the really interesting background on the Harriman expedition back in the 1890’s and how they were the first Europeans to explore and document this area.  John Muir was on that expedition, along with several other notable scientists.  (Harriman’s son, by the way, was Averell Harriman, Ambassador to the USSR during the cold war and later chief negotiator at the Paris peace talks for Vietnam).  No calving of this glacier while we were there, but that’s ok.  Stunning ice just being quiet.  We loved seeing the icebergs floating around.

    The crew scooped up a big chunk of glacier ice while we were there, and offered fresh margaritas made with pure glacier ice.  Sure, it’s a gimmick, but so what?  We couldn’t resist.  Prettiest margarita I’ve ever had!  And tasted pretty good, too!

 

      We stopped not too far from Surprise Glacier to pick up two crew members who had been out kayaking the fjord and camping out last night. Wow – did they pick a great two-day window to do that!  We remembered how we picked up and dropped off some kayakers at Glacier Bay, too.  Always fun to watch.

 

 

     Our last stop on the way back was at a working salmon hatchery.  Since the salmon fry are born there, they return these to spawn.  Again, simply miraculous how they sense which exact spot to return to after being a couple of years out in the open sea.  There were several commercial fishermen out with their purse seiners or other boats hauling them in.  Our Ranger noted that this year’s pink salmon run had set a new record.  He lauded the Alaska Game & Fish Commission for the job they do in keeping close tabs on how many salmon of each variety run each year, allowing both commercial and pleasure fishing commensurate with the numbers.

 

      Bill and I both agreed this was one of the best boat tours we’ve taken.  The scenery was just incredible, all around us, all the time.  The Forest Service Ranger’s commentary was excellent (he talked with us a little bit about our trip home and the Alaska Highway and what to expect, where to go, etc.  He was a very personable guy who does this in the summers and lives in Tucson in the winters).  We liked the smaller boat, and the nearly 360 degree views  you had if you were inside the cabin.  And of course the wonderful gift of the weather.  An embarrassment of riches, almost.

 

 

   Tired when we got home all the way back to Seward, and poor Pappy had left us a present.  His new dog food hadn’t been agreeing with him, and he had nowhere to go with it since we weren’t there to let him out.  Poor Pappy, poor Bill, who cleaned it up.