Days 20-25 Fairbanks & Whittier Glacier Cruise

We were going to stay at Denali for a week in our original plan but after 2 solid days of pouring rain and our realization that we cannot really get any further into the park or into different areas of the park than we had already seen, we decided to go on to Anchorage.

The drive from Denali to Anchorage is beautiful. Nice big wide highway with sweeping views. We were blissfully traveling along when suddenly the road was closed (we think for an accident) and the detour went on a bumpy, dusty, one lane road through the sticks. We got through it fine but wondered where in the heck they were sending us.

Driving out of the mountains down into Anchorage is quite spectacular. Anchorage sits down amid huge mountainsides and interestingly enough, although this is several hundred miles south of Fairbanks, there is more snow visible because the mountains are quite a bit closer.

We found a nice RV park not too far from downtown and spent the first day doing the tourist trolley and getting the lay of the land. What we found was that not much has changed since we were in Fairbanks 20 years ago. The Blue Angels were in town so we saw a little of their show, went to the Saturday market (but quickly ascertained it was really a cruise ship attraction) and then spent some time on the banks of the river watching the salmon fishing.

We booked a boat tour based out of the town of Whittier which is about 100 miles south of Anchorage for Monday so on Sunday we drove down that direction to make sure we knew where we were going. The Turnagain Arm is so beautiful. Looking out over Cook Inlet, the tide is quite dramatic as it is the most tide differential in the world they say. Low tides are very low and high tides are very high. The beaches look beautiful in this area but there are warning signs everywhere saying that the beaches are like quicksand and not safe to walk on at all. But still lovely to look at and we stopped several times along that stretch to enjoy the view and take pictures.

We stopped at New Girdwood (old Girdwood sank in the 1964 big earthquake). Nice little town. The big attraction is the Mount Aleyska Tram up towards the top of Mt. Aleyka. The tram ride itself is a thrill taking you up 2000 feet in 4 minutes. At the top, we did a small hike straight up to a viewpoint. Well, we didn’t really make it up to the viewpoint because it was too hard on my knees and it was hard to breathe. But we made it up .3 of a mile or about half way (the hardest .3 mile hike I think I’ve ever done). It was beautiful up there with glacier views and heart-stopping cliffs. Going down was as hard on my knees as going up was!

Nice lunch at the top. Great ride back down. Then we spent some time driving around the back roads and looking at the glaciers from a different angle and finding a beautiful huge glacial runoff waterfall in a small community that is quite a ways off the beaten path but obviously built up around the amazing mountain views and the waterfall.

Next morning up early and oh no, it’s pouring down rain. I mean buckets. We head off for our cruise anyhow, a little bummed about the weather. All the way down to Seward, pouring buckets. Get there to the pier and you can barely see the boat at the end of the dock it is so socked in with fog. We have a little breakfast and try to see the bright side of spending a lot of money to go out in a boat in the fog. The check in folks try to reassure us that sometimes when we get out on the water, the fog clear and the view are spectacular. I must admit, I’m not buying it at all.

But what do you know, we get in the boat, head out into Prince William Sound and the fog lifts and we have fantastic views of the mountains and the glaciers. Our captain is happy to report that for the first time this season, he is planning to go all the way back into the fjord with the glaciers that come all the way into the water so that we can see the glaciers up close. We get there, he is right, we are stunned by how close we get to the glaciers. We can hear the ice thunder when some of the ice falls into the water. It is so interesting and also sombering to hear how much the glaciers have receded in the past decades. Way ahead of schedule and yet they know that the glaciers have receded and refrozen over the millions of years so might be global warming and might be the natural course of things over time.

After the cruise, we head back to Anchorage where it is still raining. We feel so blessed to have had a good day on Prince William Sound. Life is good!

Bye bye Denali. We can't see the mountain anymore because it's raining too hard!

 

The detour through who knows where. Thank goodness it eventually put us back on the main highway.

 

 

That's Anchorage down there.

 

 

High tide and the fishermen/women line the banks of Shipping Creek close to downtown Anchorage.
We saw them catching beautiful silver salmon!

 

Blue Angels over downtown Anchorage.

Turnagain Arm just outside of Anchorage.

Turnagain arm. The beach looks beautiful but is dangerous due to high silt content in the sand making it like quicksand.

Turnagain arm low tide.

Mount Alyeska tram.

Up, up we go!

Beautiful view from the top of the path.

We saw 5 of the 7 glaciers that are visible. Maybe we saw all of them but we could only identify 5. Absolutely breathtaking views!

Beautiful waterfall up in the woods behind Girdwood. The source of the water is the glaciers in the mountains above.

To get to Whittier for the cruise, we have to go through a 2.5 mile long narrow tunnel that is shared with trains. Traffic alternates directions to get in and out of Whittier and stops when trains are coming through.

The boat went so close to the Glaciers.

Beautiful big glaciers in the Harvard Fjord are all named after ivy league colleges.

This glacier was actively "calving", large chunks off the end were falling into the water.

These little river otter were everywhere and so cute. They swim around on their backs.

Ah - so beautiful!

Ice bergs everywhere. The captain said that you only see 20% of an iceberg from the surface with 80% submerged.

The crew fished some ice out of the water and offered glacier margaritas. It was quite good. Cheers!