July 21, 2024 – Day 28 – Sunday
Today we went to church at the Valdez ward. They have a nice wood sided chapel near the center of town. From the discussion it sounds like ½ of the congregation were visitors. They commented that the town population more than doubles in the summer. After church we video called Grandma, Kayla/Rosie and Alyssa and the boys.
Later we drove to Valdez Glacier Lake. The glacier has receded around the mountain, but the glacier lake is full of icebergs. It’s not very pretty as the water looks muddy and most of the ice is covered with dirt and rocks, but it was interesting to see.
We then drove to the fish hatchery on the other side of the bay. We arrived at high tide and the action from the salmon and the sea lions was 10 times what it was the day before. The fish were everywhere and that brought the sea lions. There must have been 25-30 sea lion and thousands of fish. It was very interesting to watch.
We ended the evening walking alone the waterfront and docks.
July 22, 2024 – Monday – Day 29 – Glacier Viewing
This morning we scheduled a cruise to see wildlife and the Mears Glacier. However, it was rainy and a little cold. We dressed in warm clothes and brought our rain clothing. It was raining and cloudy when we left the harbor, so we did not get many pictures. However, it slowed down a bit as we went through the day, but it kept raining all day.
The ride was over 8 hours for the roundtrip. We ended up seeing a lot of wildlife. We saw Orcas, humpback whales, Dall porpoises, puffins, otters, sea lions and many types of birds. The crew mentioned that we saw a lot more than most trips.
It was a 4-hour trip to the Mears Glacier. The rain had slowed a bit, so we were able to see the glacier quite well. The glacier is ½ mile wide and 300 feet tall. We were able to get within ¼ mile of the glacier face. We heard and saw a lot of calving, but nothing large.
The weather was better on the way back to Valdez. It was a fun trip, but we did get wet and cold anytime we went outside.
July 23, 2024 – Tuesday – Day 30 – Ferry to Whittier
Today we took the ferry from Valdez to Whittier. This ferry route is part of the Alaska State Marine Highway system. This allowed us to reach Whittier by a direct water route and avoid driving 360 miles on the highway. But it did take most of the day. We left camp at 5:15 am and drove to the ferry terminal. They started loading vehicles around 6 am and the ferry left at 7:30 am.
We were lucky because on Tuesdays the ferry takes a side trip to Tatitlek, a small island community a bit south of Valdez. Today they were just going to drop off a large boom lift machine. However, the machine did not have enough power to climb the ramp off the ferry. So they had to go back in town and get a front-end loader and use that to tow the lift out of the ferry. It delayed the ferry by 30-40 minutes, but it was a fun show to watch them try to get the machine out of the ferry.
After that stop we continued the trip to Whittier. The boat only travels about 15-20 miles/hour, so the 90-mile trip took a while. They have a cafeteria, so we were able to eat lunch. We arrived in Whittier at 3:45 pm and slowly unloaded the vehicles from the belly of the ferry. They pack the cars in there like sardines.
Whittier is a small coastal town that is only accessible by vehicle through a single lane tunnel that is shared between cars and the train. The tunnel is only open once an hour for car travel in each direction. The next tunnel time for us was 4 pm, so we hurried from the ferry and got in line right at 4 pm. However, they were late, so we had plenty of time.
After going through the tunnel we drove about 140 miles to Seward and camped on Resurrection Bay in the city campground.
Corey & Eva's Travels 