Wednesday July 2, 2014 Valdez. AK

Harbor Seals

 Our activity for today was a boat tour of the bay with a trip up one of the fiords to the face of a glacier.

Of course we started with our coffee and then a shuttle picked us up at the RV Park and took us to the dock for the tour boat.

Sea Otters

Besides shipping crude oil the harbor also has two fish canneries.  We saw our first sea life just after leaving the slip area.  It was a group of sea otters swimming on their backs,  Several of them had babies on their bellies.  The day was the clearest we have had for a long time, so we had sweeping views of the mountains surrounding Valdez and Prince William Sound.

In the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound

The face of Meares Glacier

 The boat carried about a hundred passengers and sometimes jockeying for a good position was difficult.  The captain was very skillful in maneuvering the boat around for maximum viewing.  She never hurried on if there was something to see.  We went by the mouth of the Columbia Glacier and saw a lot of ice even though we were 15 miles from the glacier itself. Seals like to lay in the sun on the ice.

We went to a quarter of mile from the face of Meares Glacier which is 1/2 mile wide.  We saw quite a bit of ice calving off the face of the glacier. There was a loud explosion like noise and then a huge splash.  Quite impressive, we had never seen the ice calving this close.




Lunch was served by the boat crew.  We had chicken and alfredo sauce over rice with a green bean medley and roll and oreos for dessert.

The crew brought some ice on board from the water and passed around so everyone could see it close up.  This piece of ice was clear.  In the water the ice varies from white to shades of turquoise depending on the density.  Of course much of the floating ice is dirty looking because of the debris the glacier picks up on its way to the ocean.

A Humpback Whale

As you can see from the pictures, Gerri got lucky and caught a picture of a humpback whale's fluke just as it dived.

We also saw dolphin and horned puffins, but didn't get good pictures.

On the way back into the harbor we passed an oil tanker leaving the harbor with two tugs escorting it.  The captain explained events leading up to the Exxon Valdez grounding and the precautions now in place to prevent or clean up if something similar ever happens.

Glacial Ice

Before returning to the harbor we were served our choice of New England Clam Chowder or vegetarian minestrone soup.  The harbor was busy when we returned and the captain had to wait before she could dock.

We rode the shuttle back the few blocks to the RV Park.  The owner of the park was putting on a fish fry, so that was our dinner.  He fixed salmon fillets on a grill.  It was very good.

After dinner we drove to the other side of the bay to a fish hatchery, hoping to see some bears.  We didn't see any bears but we saw many eagles.  Some were mature bald eagles and some were juvenile.  We saw a couple feeding young ones in a nearby nest.  The eagles seem plentiful in this area, second only to the number of gulls.

Back at the coach we relaxed for a little while and called it a night

A Bald Eagle near the fish hatchery

Ice from the Columbia Glacier

Some of the many mountains around Valdez.