Prince William Sound - Glaciers Galore

Day 6
Saturday – 5 September

Trip to Prince William Sound

Another beautiful day dawns as we are about to head south for the day. An early start was necessary as we had a fair way to travel. We were picked up at 8.00 am at our hotel and then travelled a short way around town to collect other souls. Once done it was down the Old Seward Highway heading for Whittier and the cruise.

On the way we worked our way down the Cook Inlet –discovered by Captain Cook in 1778. He made landfall and traded with the natives. There was an artist on the ship who did some incredible sketches of the landscape and the natives and their day to day lives. There was a couple in the Alaskan museum - very detailed. We travelled along a section of the Inlet called Turnagain Arm. Cook named it because the sailors he sent to explore it had to keep turning again and tacking the ship because of the tides. The tides, on average, vary by between 35 -40 feet each day. The water rushes in to fill the almost empty inlet (which turns to massive mudflats as the tide recedes). This is the third largest tidal exchange in the world, behind Broome and somewhere I can’t remember. When the returning tide meets the outgoing tide twice a day, it creates what is called a BORE WAVE. It is quite extraordinary to see and we lucked upon it twice. The wave can range in height from a few inches to 6 feet rushing into the inlet. It was probably only about a foot high when we saw them but that will increase as the size of the tide increases. The locals told us that when the BORE Wave is 5 – 6 feet high the local surfers ride the wave to the end of the inlet – some 60 – 70 kilometres. What a buzz!

It was in the inlet that we saw some Beluga whales. They were only immature ones – grey not white as the adults are. They don’t jump out of the water but just roll out and in quickly. You have to really watch to see them as they move quickly.
To get to Prince William Sound we had to go to Whittier. This turned out to be a unique experience as we had to go through the longest tunnel in the North American continent. It was 2.5 klms long and perfectly straight. It was built in 1941-42 by the army as a means of transporting soldiers/goods to Anchorage and beyond if the Japanese invaded. They did bomb the outer islands of the Aleutian Islands, so the threat was very real. Seward was vulnerable, as was Juneau and Whittier – the only all year round ice free ports. The tunnel in only wide enough for the train, so it is shared on a rotational basis with the public - that is it is open at one end for 30 mins and then the other end has its turn. The locals are always keen to make the tunnel opening time or they have to sit and wait for an hour. The tunnel is carved into solid rock and has no internal supports and was built in 11 months. Quite an engineering feat!

Once on the water we cruised past a bird rookery – Kitty Winks (we call them sea gulls). They migrate to the same area every year and are very specific as to where they roost. We moved on to the salmon hatchery. Here they breed and return in the order of 600 million hatchlings back into the wild each year. The salmon had just about finished their run for this year so we only saw a few stragglers in the water nearby. Very big ones, or so they seemed to us. We saw a couple of bald eagles sitting in the trees - USA native bird emblem – out hunting for whatever they could find.

We headed for the glaciers, which was the exciting. On the way we glimpsed a couple of sea lions chasing some fish. They are quite large in the water and very swift.
Next we came across some gorgeous sea otters. The hang about in “rafts” (groups) lolling on their backs and grooming themselves. They are very shy and don’t stay around for too long so are very difficult to photograph. We did manage a couple of long distance shots though. They had an otter pelt on board so we could feel how soft their hair is – it is hair not fur.

All the way we were surrounded by mountains and glaciers. Many of the glaciers are known as hanging glaciers as they never come to the water and remain high up in the mountain valleys. They shimmered and appeared blue in the sunlight. ‘Blue ice’ is not actually blue, but it is a trick of light refraction and blue is the only colour of the spectrum not absorbed by the light. We saw many glaciers and as we went further into the Sound we saw the magnificent tide water glaciers. These do come to the water and below for some hundreds of feet. They too, have a blue ice effect but also carry the dirt and rock from millions of years of having been grinding their way to the water (called moraines). They groan and creak and moan and crack really load pops like a shotgun being fired, as they move along. We were able to stay very near to the front of the Surprise Glacier so we could listen to it and watch to see if it ‘calved’. It did – 3 times – while we were there they were quite small calvings though. Below the front of the glacier were piles of floating ice and sunning themselves on the ice were seals. We weren’t able to get too close to them as they would just slide off the ice floe and into the water.

Photos don’t do the glaciers justice. They are so grand and big and impressive. Truly awesome! Although we hear that the glaciers are all receding and melting, this isn’t exactly true. Yes they have receded, but they have done this throughout history. Some of them are actually getting bigger and some have remained unchanged. Whatever one believes about global warming, we are glad we had the privilege of seeing them. Just awe inspiring!

So this day was long and gratifying and we were able to tick another box for the things to do in Alaska. A great day all round.