Rambling travelogs from a world traveler

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Turnagain and the Glacier Cruise

Some more quick pictures and no real story.

We got up early this morning and drove up the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.  Then we drove down the Portage Valley and through the Anton Anderson Tunnel to Whittier, AK to take a 5 hour glacier cruise.

As we left town we paralleled the railroad truck and passed the train taking people to Whittier for the same cruise.  We got far enough out in front to take this picture.


This was just slightly before sunrise and I'm happy the picture is a good as it is.

Further up the Turnagain, we passed the Bore Tide and found a place to get these videos of it.  This one is just before the bore tide passed.


 

And this one is the Bore Tide passing.


It was a rainy day and we had to wait for the 10:30 tunnel car open time.  When the tunnel opened we entered it here.





In Whittier, we got on this ship.


The cruise is long and we saw lot's of stuff despite the heavy rain all day long.  Here Ann is looking at 30 or so Steller Seals on Perry Island.  The Seals are in the light brown area at the far left of the picture.


Here is Ann enjoying the Surprise Glacier.





The glacier was actively calving and we saw several BIG stacks of ice fall into the fjord.  One significantly rocked the boat.  We were even lucky enough to see a big block of ice break loose from under the water (as deep as 300 feet) and come shooting up to the surface.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera out.

Here are Ann and I in front of Cascade Glacier.


The ship docked at 17:30 and we took the 18:00 tunnel back over to Girdwood.  We had a really great dinner at the Double Musky

We finished just before sunset and saw this nice vista near Bird Point


We are back in the Ilona's Bed & Breakfast and it's late.  It's beddy bye time.

I remain,

Dad / Geoff

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