Adventure - Sightseeing on the 26 Glacier Cruise

Blackstone Glacier

Stats

Difficulty: Easy                                                                                               Time:  5+ hours

Summary

If you want a day packed with glaciers, wildlife, and flat seas, Phillips Cruises 26 Glacier Cruise out of Whittier on the M/V Klondike Express is right up your alley.  The cruise includes the 26 glaciers including a nice close-up view of 2 of them; a good chance (but no guarantee) of seals, sea lions, otters, dolphins, and whales; and a kittiwake nesting area.

Opinion

This trip is good for tourists or locals, photographers, sightseers, kids and adults.  Over the course of the five-hour, we took over 3,000 pictures!  We were actually beginning to worry about maxing out our 64 GB camera memory cards.  The company does a good job of 

allowing time to chase whales, plus a long time spent on a close pass of the glaciers and a long time for otters.  They do an excellent job of giving everyone a chance to see and photograph the wildlife and glaciers.

Advice

If you want to go out on the deck while we travel, bring a warm coat and hat or scarf.  The boat travels very quickly and the wind on the deck is bitter.

Lunch, water, coffee, and tea are included.  You can also buy additional snacks, sodas, beer, and wine

Bring a camera.  You never know what you might see.

If you are prone to motion sickness you probably won't have a problem.  The boat is large and stable and moves quickly enough to avoid uncomfortable motion.  In addition, the area they cover is sheltered and calm. 

Suitability

This trip is suitable for all ages and fitness levels.  You are assigned a table with your ticket and can spend the entire trip sitting down and still see virtually everything (although it is more fun on the deck when the boat stops).  We did this trip with elderly parents and my father cannot walk more than about 2 blocks at a time.  We had no problems.  

The main deck is wheelchair accessible and there are tables set up for wheelchairs.

Starting Point

The boat boards right next to the full sized cruise boat dock.  It is well labeled and hard to miss.  Follow the directions they send with your tickets and you should have no problems.



The Adventure

Unless you are staying in Whittier, you will need to plan your travel time to include the trip through the Whittier tunnel.  This is a one-lane tunnel that is shared by the Alaska Railroad and inbound and outbound motor vehicles.  This means the tunnel is only open going your way at specific times.  The Alaska DOT posts the tunnel schedule.  After you pass through the tunnel, you are at most 10 minutes from Whittier.  The Phillips Cruises provides directions to the recommended parking lot.  There is a small parking fee.  The cruise company recommends you plan on arriving at the tunnel two hours before the cruise.  For us this was excessive; we could have made it with time to spare if we had taken the tunnel just an hour early.  However, if you want to play it safe, follow the cruise company's advice.

Parking is available, but is about 1/4 mile from the dock.  There was space to allow us to drop off my father who cannot walk far before we took the car to the parking lot.  Once you get to the lot you will need to find the parking lot attendant (in a small blue and yellow building near the entrance).  She will tell you where to park and take your money.  You need to talk to her because the parking lot is not marked or labeled and figuring out where you can park is difficult without directions.

If you plan to take the cruise company's advice and arrive early, keep in mind that there is very little to do in Whittier while you wait.  There is one tourist trap, a small number of restaurants, and a bunch of fish packing places near the maria, and we haven't explored the entire town yet.  There are some nice views and photo opportunities, but even that won't take very long.  We recommend you bring a book or other entertainment.

To board the boat you walk down their ramp onto the dock and directly onto the boat.  You are then directed to your assigned table.  The tables seat up to 6 (it would be a tight fit) so if you are with a small party you may be seated with another group.  They fill the tables by the window before they fill the smaller number of tables in the center.  After the boat departs you can change tables if you wish, but the only empty tables are likely to be in the center (at least at the height of summer).

Lunch is included in the trip.  They ask you for your choice when you book and they are serious.  If you don’t choose anything, you get fish but at ticketing you can ask for chicken or vegetarian.  I ordered fish, but when I go again, I’m asking for chicken.   Our party ended up with at least one of every choice and there wasn't one that stood out as a clear winner.  As a side note, they feed the top floor first then the bottom floor.  It was nearly an hour before we got our lunch and we were getting into some interesting scenery by then.

There is also a deli/bar is at the aft end of the main deck and they have the usual selection of short order food and drinks (including beer and wine).  They also take credit.  In fact, they really do take your credit card.  Then they hold it for the duration of the trip and run you a tab.  This is because unless they’re under the cell coverage from Whittier they can’t run your card.  The good news is they are very good about announcing when they are back in coverage so you can get your card back.

Now for the real reason for the trip: the sights.  Each floor has a GPS enabled map posted on TV screens for easy viewing and a cartoon map of where you are going to help you figure out what to expect.  Also there is an assigned National Forest Ranger as a naturalist to tell you all about what you are seeing. 

Note: if you have kids they run a "junior ranger" program during the trip to help the kids get more engaged.

The first leg of the trip is done at speed (and on this boat, speed means speed. We did about 34 knots most of the trip).  In fact, the boat moves so quickly they block the forward deck while the boat is moving (but the captain is really good at telling the crew to open up the doors when he stops).  The only outside areas available during travel is the back deck.  Even that deck is seriously windy and cold, so you if plan to be outside during the trip, make sure you have a coat and even a scarf and/or hat.

View on the way to Esther Passage

The boat travels quickly to its first destination, which is a large island that often has wildlife, including sea lions, on the shore.  The boat transits the narrow Esther Passage for beautiful views of the land on both sides of the boat.

On the way to Esther Passage the captain spotted a whale spout.  We spent about 20 minutes chasing the spouting, but never got close enough to really see a whale on that leg.  The captain has a very good eye for wildlife spotting and the USFS ranger is very knowledgeable so you can learn a lot about the things you see on this trip. 

We not only spotted wildlife, we also saw many fishing boats as salmon season was in full swing while we were traveling.  The fishing boats were everywhere.

Fishing Boat in front of College Fjord

The next leg of the trip took us for a quick view of College Fjord.  The glaciers in that fjord are all named for colleges.  The south side glaciers are named for men's colleges and the north side glaciers are named for women's colleges.  The boat doesn't go very far into the fjord, but you do get some nice views.

Otters on a raft

What are you looking at?

The other purpose for traveling in this direction is the sea otters.  It seems there is a raft that likes to hang out near the entrance to the fjord.  There were dozens of them, many with pups, hanging out near a large ice raft that had fallen from one of the glaciers.  Several were using it as a perch to get out of the water and engage in some serious grooming.  We didn't get a close as I'd have liked, but it was fun watching they raft play, swim, and dive.  We stayed and watched for at least 20 minutes while the boat slowly rotated to give everyone a good look regardless of which side of the boat they were on.

From there we traveled around into Barry Arm and into Harriman's Fjord.  The story of the naming of the fjord is kind of fun.  Most the glaciers in this region were named by an exploratory expedition.  When they got to Barry Arm, there were glaciers everywhere and Harriman's Fjord is around a tight corner that looks like it dead ends into a glacier.  The boat captain wanted to stop and turn around, but Harriman said NO and took over the boat and drove around the corner.  A fjord filled with glaciers appeared in front of them and they named the fjord for Harriman.

Surprise Glacier

Calving of Surprise Glacier

At the base of the Harriman Fjord is the Surprise Glacier.  This is the first of two glaciers they boat gets very close to.  The boat slowed and carefully pulled up about 300 ft from the face of surprise glacier.  They opened the forward deck and the captain once again slowly turned the boat to give everyone the best possible chance to see the glacier and take pictures.  We must have stayed there for a good 30 minutes.  While we watched there was a good-sized calving event and we even managed to get photos!  This was the first of 3 we saw on this trip.  The sun was shining and the glacier was glowing blue with light filtered through the ice.  It was just beautiful!

Seals on the ice

The water on both sides of the fjord near the glacier was filled with ice calved from the glaciers.  Look closely; you will likely see Harbor Seals resting on the ice near the cliff walls. There was also a fishing boat actually in the ice as well.  We weren't sure what he was fishing for in such an apparently hazardous location.

Barry's Glacier

After a while we left Surprise Glacier and headed for Barry's Glacier.  This is where we talk about the weather.  This area of Prince William Sound is a sub-tropical rain forest.  They get insane amounts of rain.  The area is also often clouded over.  During the trip we went through several small rain showers, several areas of sun, and just about everything in-between.  Unfortunately for us, Barry's Glacier was sitting under one of those rain showers as we arrived.  A light fog also accompanied the rain shower, so the viewing of that glacier wasn't as good as Surprise Glacier.  However, we saw our 3rd calving event as the captain once again turned the boat to allow for good viewing.

Cascade Glacier

Dall's porpoise

We left Barry's Glacier, passing near Cascade Glacier which really does look like a waterfall the glacier is so steep, and headed for the last stop on the trip: the Kittiwake nesting area.  About halfway there, the captain spotted a pod of Dall's porpoises.  He slowed and managed to lure them into a nice game of wake riding for several minutes.  Since he was moving slowly he opened the forward deck so we could all pile out for some photographs.  The water was so clear that you could see them racing just under the surface and knew exactly were they would breach. 

Bald Eagle on a rock

There was also a pod of humpback whales in the area but they are hard to spot and can really swim.  So we saw a few blows and the occasional back or tail but couldn’t get a camera onto them.  They were also very far away.  Putting in a minor appearance were a bald eagle and sea lion sitting on some rocks.

Kittiwake's nesting

We reached the Kittiwake nesting area, which is just across from the Whittier docks.  It was pretty impressive.  The cliffs are covered with Kittiwakes and there is a tall waterfall splitting the cliff right in the middle of their nesting area.  It made for some dramatic views and nice pictures.

We arrived with only 15 minutes to spare before the tunnel opened in our direction.  We disembarked as quickly as possible when the boat docks and rushed to the parking lot to get our car.  We made it before the tunnel opened an probably would have been fine without rushing since the tunnel is open for at least 15 minutes (it says a half-hour, but remember they need to allow time for traffic to transit and clear the tunnel before it changes directions).

Overall this was a great was to spend a day!  Fabulous views, interesting narrative, the occasional glass of wine and great photo opportunities: what more could anyone ask?