Before leaving Anchorage, I had to take one last picture of
my daughter-in-law’s dog Milo. He loves
to play “stick” and thinks using a “log” is the same thing. He cracks me up with his playfulness. They are lucky to have such a sweet pet.
The trip to Whittier took us down some of the same roads we
traveled when going to Homer and Seward.
Turnagan Arm that goes around Cook’s Inlet was (as always) a
spectacular view despite the overcast grey skies.
Turning on the road to Whittier allowed us to travel pass
Portage Glacier. This is part of a huge
ice field which is evident by all the glaciers found flowing down the lower
areas of the mountains.
Anyone traveling to Whittier has to allow for extra time to
travel through a one way tunnel that is 2 ½ miles long which is shared with
train tracks. If a train is going
through the tunnel, all traffic has to stop to allow the train to proceed. Traffic going to Whittier is released to go
through the tunnel on the bottom of the hour.
We thought it was at the top of the hour and had to wait in the holding
area for 30 minutes until the Whittier traffic had traversed the tunnel. The pictures taken in the tunnel were too
dark and blurry to post.
Whittier is a very small fishing community that is
surrounded by mountains and glaciers. We
were unable to see the glaciers due to the rainy weather. By the time we arrived, most of the gift shops had closed. We were able to find some hot chocolate which was good on this cold rainy day.
Picture of our camper sitting outside the terminal staging area.
Picture of Whittier marina. Cruise ship in the background.
There was a waterfall that zig zagged down the mountain in Whittier. The clouds covered up the glacier where it was originating.
Glaciers dotted the tops of the hills surrounding the waterway in Whittier, AK.
The ferry arrived on time.
The parking lot didn’t have too many people waiting to get on. There were a lot of students that came off
the ferry when it docked. This mode of
transportation is nothing like a cruise ship.
It is treated much like a highway system. People drive on, or walk on, and camp with
tents and/or blow-up mattresses in the solarium on the upper deck, or (like us)
choose to pay extra for the comfort?? of a cabin with private bath. The entertainment on-board is a worn out
monopoly board, 2500 piece jigsaw puzzle that everyone of the 158 souls on
board helped put together… for 5 days, counting the rain drops on the front
windows, an occasional worn-out documentaries of various engineer feats of
clearing waterway passages in the 1950s, along with the worst movies that have
recently been released to video produced by Hollywood in the past 5 years (only
two per day…one for kids….one for adults).
If that doesn’t entertain you enough, you can always watch people sleep
in the big room that had windows on 3 walls allowing for good viewing of
whales, eagles, glaciers, and other beautiful sites along the way. Here are pictures of the ferry that were
taken along with some of the cars that were on board.
This is a picture of one of the vehicles that was on the ship. This was a classic that was owned by a fisherman traveling to Ketchican. He said he had over 40 fishing poles in the camper. He was quite a character.
Below is a picture of the cardeck as we drove on the ship. This is where the dogs lived for four days and five nights in the back of our camper.
One issue we had while onboard was having limited access to
our doggies. Our big dog would not relax
on the car deck to relieve herself. The
little dog didn’t have any problems. She
made lots of friends with the other doggies and didn’t have any problems. It was a rough week for the dogs, but they
survived and enjoyed going to the dog park when we got off the ship. Here’s some pictures of the car deck where we
were parked crossways behind the forward staircase on the ship.
The scenery was spectacular when it wasn’t cloudy and
rainy. I asked the fellow at the ferry
terminal when the rain stops and was told it will stop when the snow
starts. However, we did have a few clear
days and most times the clouds added to some of the beauty and grandeur of the
scenery that we passed. The first night out
was rough with 10-15 foot swells after we entered the Gulf of Alaska. All the cars on the car deck had to be strapped
down to keep them from bouncing around. Needless
to say it was a Dramamine night for us, but we didn’t have any problems. We tucked in and slept well.
One of the prettiest sites was seeing the Hubbard
Glacier. This glacier is North America’s
largest tidewater glacier. It is 76
miles long, 7 miles wide, and 600 feet thick where it meets the sea and 400
feet was visible above the water. The Hubbard
Glacier is still advancing and growing. The
ferries usually don’t go up to view the glacier, but our captain had some extra
time and thought it would be a nice treat for the passengers. The ice fields around the St. Elias mountain
range fed this glacier.
On the approach to the glacier, a rainbow appeared. The picture taken is proof there is no pot of
gold at the end of a rainbow.
Below are pictures taken as we approached the glacier. We never got closer than 4 miles to the glacier and it still looked huge. It got very cold as we approached the face of
the glacier and the wind off the ice got very strong. Ice was seen floating in the water all around
the boat.
After seeing the Glacier, we arrived in Yakutat village to
pick up a few passengers. Even though this
town is considered the largest city in North American by land area, it only has
a population of 4000 people or so. Some
of the local villagers met the ferry at the dock so they could come aboard and
have dinner in the cafeteria (hamburgers and French fries). Many were seen leaving the ship with bowls of
soft-serve ice cream. Yakutat doesn’t
have the population to support fast-food type restaurants. Here are some pictures taken on day 2 of the
ferry. We arrived in Juneau on this
day.
This is a picture of a whale. Not much shows above water and they are easy
to miss or think it’s a rock or something that the waves are splashing
over. We saw countless sightings of
humpback whales and one sighting of an orca with a tall dorsal fin sticking out
of the water. Unfortunately, no picture
was captured of that.
The Juneau port was is located 12 miles from the City
Center. Cruise ships dock closer to
downtown, but the ferry docks at the seaport.
There was several RVs and cars that were loaded into the car deck. We were able to sit on a bench and let the
dogs have a nice break from the truck camper that afternoon. There was a nice grassy area next to the dock
where the dogs could walk. Some of the
“campers” riding the ferry took an opportunity to air out their tents and
sleeping bags.
When we left Juneau – headed for Ketchikan – the clouds
rolled in and it began raining again. I
was still able to get a few good pics of the scenery between showers.
Some of the sunsets were spectacular.
Ketchikan had a few shops and stores near the port so we took
the opportunity to pick up a few groceries to take back to our room. We could have taken a bus into town, but we didn’t
want to be that far away from our pups. The
airport was across the bay from the seaport and sea planes were coming and going
all afternoon.
There was a break in the rain for a few hours after we left Ketchikan.
The ferry maneuvered between some narrow
channels taking us close to the shoreline. We passed a pretty little lighthouse near Bella
Bella (it’s so nice they named it twice) and a fish camp that featured a totem pole
in the middle of the compound.
It was a good voyage. We met some interesting people along the way. There were a lot of people on the ferry that were in the process of moving back to the lower 48. Seattle has been rainy since we arrived. We aren't sure what direction we will head to go home. That decision will be made when we point the car Southeast and see where we land.
