26 Glaciers Tour
Taking a day cruise out of Anchorage is a "must do" if you have an extra day here. There are several options. We took our most recent out of town visitor on the 26 Glaciers Tour (Phillips Cruises and Tours)out of Whittier, Alaska. There are lots of great reasons to get yourself to Whittier. One of the reasons is that the trip there is a mini adventure all by itself.
Whittier is about a 1 1/2-hour drive from Anchorage. The trip down the Turnagain Arm is a tour within a tour. Once you pass through mid-town Anchorage on the Seward Highway, you will leave the last stop light that you will see for 50 plus miles. The Turnagain Arm offers many sights, including our famous Bore Tide (a tide that come in on a 6-foot wave that travels 25 miles down the Arm on certain days of the year.) We often see Beluga Whales in the Arm as well. On the left rise the Chugach Mountains. Dall Sheep can be seen on the ridges and sometimes right down in the road. The mountains, the water, and the glaciers offer views worth seeing, even if the animals are a no show.
Once you get to Portage Valley, you follow the road to Bear Valley. This is where things get (even more) interesting. At one time, Whittier was access only by rail. The train went through the 2.6 mile Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. About 7 years ago, they turned the rail tunnel into a dual one way road & rail tunnel. The cars and the train share the tunnel on an alternating schedule (currently the tunnel is open to get to Whittier on the 1/2 hour, meaning 8:30, 9:30, 10:30 and so on. It is open for about 15 minutes in that direction, closes for the train and then opens in the opposite direction (coming from Whittier) on the hour for about 15 minutes and so on. If you miss the tunnel, you have to wait until the next hourly opening.
The tunnel is so long that you cannot see the other end until you are about half way through, even then it is just a tiny dot. The hard rock walls look hand hewn, like a movie set, my visitors commented. Note that there is a fee to use the tunnel, about $12 for a car. It is a roundtrip fee collected on your way in to Whittier. Tunnel openings and fee information can be found at: http://www.dot.state.ak.us/creg/whittiertunnel/index.shtml
Once you come out the other side, you find yourself in a one horse town. The are two large buildings, one called "Begich Towers" is where about 80% of the residents live. The other, "The Buckner Building," has been abandoned since the 60's and is derelict. There are other smaller buildings that make up a few businesses and some homes, The waterfront is where all of the focus goes and there is where you will find the "Klondike Express" awaiting your arrival.
The Klondike Express is a high-speed luxury catamaran. It was very cozy, comfortable, and the crew was welcoming and informative. I half expected the cruise to be cancelled as the day that we went out it was raining buckets. But, true to their claim, the Klondike Express ran smoothly through the stormy water. They offer a money back guarantee if anyone gets seasick. The catamaran quickly took us out of the rain and into the glacier studded coastline beyond Whittier. Cruising out into the Prince William Sound, we saw otters and seals. But the real gems were the glaciers. We stopped at several and watched them calve while we sipped some wine (purchased at the bar) and ate our lunch (included in the cost of the tour) of Halibut, though I was able to request, in advance, chicken strips for the kids.
The cruise runs at about $139.00 (adult) and $79 (children), though additional fees and taxes do apply. The cruise is about 4 1/2 hours long. You can get to Whittier by car, train, or bus. For more information about this cruise, or for rates on transportation by bus or train (Alaska Railroad) check out: http://www.26glaciers.com/
