A Tale of Two Cruises

Female Orca, Kenai Fjords National Park

On our down time between Silver Salmon Creek Lodge (SSCL) and Dutch Harbor, we decided to stay in Girdwood so we'd be close to both Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. 

Seward

We booked a condo in the ski area at the base of Mt. Alyeska. I guess I didn't read the description closely (or look closely at the pictures). It was such an odd layout: small, but normal kitchen, normal bathroom and a small living room with a giant bed in the middle of it. I guess it was no different than a hotel room except that the rustic bed frame took up so much space, you could barely move around. Oh, well, it was warm and dry (and had a TV without service).

No place to put luggage!

During the two days we had free, we went on two cruises: one to Prince William Sound (PWS) and one to Kenai Fjords National Park.

Cruise #1

When planning the trip, we had decided to go on the Phillips Cruises and Tours “26 Glaciers in One Day!” cruise. The name of the cruise has long been a family catchphrase, primarily because of the exclamation point. You are not allowed to say it unless you say it hyper-dramatically, as in TWENTY-SIX GLACIERS IN ONE DAY!!!!!!

One of the alleged 26 glaciers 

This trip leaves from Whittier and tours College Fjord, which is a narrow arm off of PWS on the northeast side of the Kenai Peninsula. It's called College Fjord because the 1899 Harriman Expedition named the glaciers after the Ivy League Colleges on the east coast. The expedition included a Harvard and an Amherst professor, and they named many of the glaciers after elite colleges. According to Bruce Molina, author of Alaska's Glaciers, "They took great delight in ignoring Princeton." Such fun in the era of white people "discovering" stuff in Alaska at the turn of the century!

College Fjord is to the northwest of PWS

I was thinking of this trip as visiting PWS (that is what the website says), but when you look at the map, that's really kind of a stretch. 

The fjord and the sound are separated by mountains, connected by narrow channels. To see tidewater glaciers, you have to go up the fjord.

PWS and its fjords are ringed by the steep, heavily glaciated Chugach Mountains. Often the mountains are almost perpendicular to the ocean. 

We had scheduled the same cruise at the end of our trip to Alaska in 2021 but bailed on it because the weather was iffy and we just weren’t feeling it. We even forfeited the more than $300 we paid for tickets. That’s how crappy the weather was. 

But, I had great memories of how beautiful PWS is from our family vacation way back in 2001 ...

Caty, Becca and Scott back when

... and from our driving trip in 1013 where crossed PWS on the ferry going from Whittier to Valdez ...

A foggy day in 2013 (I guess fog is the norm)

Deep blue ocean, snow-topped mountains, green forests, glaciers! I really wanted to see it again.

 

My first time in PWS (this is a scanned film shot)

Because I know that almost everything in Alaska gets booked out in advance for June and July, I reserved the same cruise (and paid the same money) this year. 

So, even though the weather was crappy – I mean really crappy – we were bound and determined to go. Maybe it would clear up. Maybe there would be dramatic fog-shrouded vistas. Maybe it wouldn’t be a disaster. So, we packed up our rain gear and drove through the railroad tunnel to Whittier to catch the boat. 

The route

Here's how Phillips describes the 5 ¾-hour trip: The 26 Glacier Cruise explores the calm waters and wild sights of Alaska's Prince William Sound. Travel in comfort aboard safe, modern high-speed catamarans. 

Discover glacier-carved fjords and pristine wilderness around every turn. 

Prince William Sound boasts one of the world's largest concentrations of tidewater glaciers. College Fjord and Blackstone Bay provide impressive panoramic views of spectacular glaciers flowing down from the mountains to the saltwater.

The Harvard Glacier in College Fjord

As the Captain navigates a path through the ice-filled waters, watch the dynamic tidewater glaciers closely as massive chunks of ice can calve (break off) at any moment and crash to the sea with a thunderous sound. 

Iceberg that undoubtedly had created a "thunderous sound"

Marine wildlife and migratory birds easily outnumber people in Prince William Sound, so the odds are good that you will see a lot more than glaciers on our cruises!

Sea Otters are a common sight, along with Harbor Seals, Bald Eagles and Black-legged Kittiwakes. 

Bald Eagle

There are five species of wild Alaska Salmon in the Sound. When the fish are in, the Whales and Bears will follow! It is not uncommon to see Orcas, Humpback Whales, Sea Lions, Black Bears, Mountain Goats, Dall's Porpoise and migratory birds on our 26 Glacier Cruise.

That’s a pretty accurate description and we did see some of those things when we could see. But, lordy, it was wet. The fog was so dense it was hard to make out the shores of the narrow fjord. 

Not too much to look at

The glaciers (which had noticeably shrunk since last I was there in 2001) were pretty dormant. 

While the "high-speed catamarans" are smooth, they do move fast. I felt like most of the trip was a race to get to the end of the fjord. I prefer a more leisurely pace, where you can stand on deck and photograph as you go. 

High-speed boat

Sure, we passed lots of glaciers, but we really only stopped to view two: Blackstone and Harvard. I am not even sure it's possible to see all 26 because some are around a corner. Because the deck was pretty cold and wet as we zipped long, I couldn't even look.

Balancing act

Lunch – a choice of seafood chowder or vegetarian chili – and tea, coffee and water are included. They also sell snacks, beverages and (blissfully) hot chocolate. 

Normally, I don't care about the food on these tours because I am on deck shooting. But, when you are speeding through rain, it becomes more important. 

The trip wasn’t a total bust and, I am sure, had it been a sunny day, I would have felt totally different. But, I wouldn’t book in advance again. I'd rather take my chances to see if I could get tickets if the weather looked good. 

Being cold and wet and having to sheath my camera in plastic was just depressing.

Less than ideal weather

It’s not that I didn’t know this could happen. Alaska often has bad weather, especially on the coast. I warn people about that all the time. But, still.

So, even with the drippy weather, we did have some nice animal sightings …

Harbor Seal

Dall's Porpoise, one of the world's fastest marine mammals (I never got a shot above the surface)

Sea Otters

And, although the glaciers were fairly calm, we did have some calving, just nothing dramatic …

Just a little bit of action

I guess it beats sitting around the condo.

Cruise #2

A wall of ice

Our second cruise wasn't planned in advance and, in some ways it was a "do-over" after the disappointing PWS trip. 

Since we had no plans, we decided to do the Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise that I have done more times than I can count. 

In fact, I do it every time I go to Seward (especially if Scott is going fishing).

I have blogged about it a lot, so I won't go into much detail except to say Kenai Fjords National Park protects the Harding Icefield, its 38 glaciers and the forested land between the mountains and the sea. 

The Park is the southeastern side of the Kenai Peninsula and these boat tours depart from Seward, which is immediately to the east of the Park on Resurrection Bay. 

Despite many trips, this was the first time I saw nesting Tufted Puffins

It leaves out of Seward and travels among glaciers and wildlife refuges. Because we decided late and had to drive there, we took a shorter cruise than we normally do.

We were betting on better weather, but we lost, for the most part. It was foggy and rainy. Still, we enjoyed the trip a lot more: less people, a slower boat and better scenery. 

At least we could see a little scenery

And, more than any other Kenai Fjords trip I have been on, this one concentrated on wildlife, especially birds. We saw ...

A wet Bald Eagle guarding Resurrection Bay

Tufted Puffins

A Pelagic Cormorant and a Short-tailed Shearwater (lifer!)

Black-legged Kittiwakes (lots and lots of 'em)

Common and Thick-billed Murres

The marine mammals we saw included some Dall's Porpoises riding the boat's wake that were way too fast to photograph and lots of other variety ...

Harbor Seals

Female Orca

Male Orca

A couple of Humpback Whales

Steller Sea Lions, including this giant bull

Sea Otters

Some resemblance

The Sea Otters were quite active. I think there was some courtship (or more) going on. The naturalist originally thought the pair above was a mother and baby. Then he corrected himself and got very quiet. In addition to the Sea Otters in the water, we saw some hauled out of the rocks. We had also seen hauled-out Sea Otters on an ice floe in PWS. 

The onboard naturalist said it's unusual to see Sea Otters out of the water

Even though I enjoyed the Kenai Fjords trip more, I think the glaciers were prettier in PWS ...

Holgate Galcier in Kenai Fjords

Harvard Glacier in PWS; a little PhotoShop goes a long way

Neither cruise rated highly among the many, many, many we have taken in our 14+ trips to Alaska, but given a choice of doing that to sitting in my house or going to Las Vegas or Disney World, I would take 26 glaciers any day!

Trip date: June 16-29, 2023