Early, early this morning we grabbed breakfast and hopped aboard the Alaska State Ferry for the ride across Prince William Sound, from Valdez to Whittier. Prince William Sound is the northern part of the Gulf of Alaska, protected by two large islands that make it almost an enclosed body of water. It is a wilderness of steep fjords, some 3,000 miles of rugged coastline with towering mountains, countless islands, rainforests and many tidewater glaciers, including the gigantic Columbia Glacier.
The morning fog in Valdez didn't give us much hope for sightseeing. It wasn't long before the weather cleared a bit - and we saw some sea lions sleeping on a buoy near the mouth of the harbor.
Icebergs everywhere are the first hint of approaching Columbia Glacier. The ice provides a nice resting place for sea lions.
The glacier itself is huge. It is Alaska's largest tidewater glacier, covering 435 square miles. In recent years, it has been retreating, but it still spills plenty of ice into Prince William Sound.
And there are more glaciers - everywhere. This one is named Tebenkof after a surveyor in the Russian Navy. Names in Alaska are multicultural - English, Russian, Indian, Eskimo, even Spanish.
The ferry's approach to the town of Whittier is much nicer than the town itself. Whittier bills itself as the Gateway to Prince William Sound; it is on a deep, ice-free harbor surrounded by tall mountains - beautiful from a distance. The community was quite isolated until highway access arrived in 2000; at that time, a 2.5-mile railroad tunnel was converted to accommodate automobile traffic, thus connecting Whittier to the rest of Alaska. It's still a long way to anywhere and it's easy to see why folks refer to Whittier as Alaska's Siberia.
To top it off, over 80% of the town's residents live in one monolithic high-rise apartment building - the only way to get there is through a long pedestrian tunnel connecting it to the harbor - not charming, not charming at all.
Whittier is pretty nice around the harbor, so that's where we mostly stayed. There are gazillions of small boats in the harbor - it seems like most of the town's residents own a boat - guess that's the easiest way to escape. If they're not escaping, they're fishing; tourists come here for the salmon but they don't hang around to eat them - they freeze them and ship them home.
And then there's the reindeer lady - a woman who has several pet caribou which she brings to visit with folks at her gift shop in town. She had even more animals, but gave them to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
We did see a beautiful bald eagle perched high on a post near the harbor. He just sat there for hours, watching the cars go in and out of the tunnel. The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel connects the port city of Whittier to Portage and the Seward Highway. This 2.5 mile former World War II railroad tunnel is now the longest highway tunnel in North America. The railroad track is still there, but now there's also a one-lane road that allows traffic to pass in alternating directions (every 30 minutes).
Leaving the tunnel, we entered the Portage Valley and looked for signs of what remains of the village of Portage - a community that was abandoned after the 1964 earthquake dropped the site onto a tidal plain. Here we pick up the Seward Highway, which runs between Anchorage and Seward.
Soon we turned onto the Hope Highway, an 18-mile route to the historic gold-mining community of Hope, on Turnagain Arm's south shore. Turnagain Arm is part of the Cook Inlet and is known for its huge tidal changes - up to 40 feet difference between high and low tide. It got its name from Captain Cook, who was looking for a northwest passage; Cook Inlet is so long (90 miles) that the Captain thought he'd found the route; when he had to turn around again, he was not happy with this place, which was named to recall a bad day's work.
Hope, originally a gold rush town, today bills itself as Alaska's friendliest town. Among its one hundred residents are Barbara and Todd Bureau, the owners of our tour company and of Discovery Cabins, our lodging for the next couple of nights. Barbara fixed dinner for us at the lodge: grilled salmon-burgers and creme de menthe brownies. Our cabin is on a bluff overlooking Bear Creek; it's nestled in the spruce and birch trees, and the bathroom is down the trail. It rained all night ... great sleeping (even in broad daylight) - creek rushing below us, rain banging on the tin roof, and temperature in the mid-fifties .... nice.
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