Day 71 of Our RV Journey to Canada & Alaska 7/22/14 - Took Columbia Glacier Cruise Out of Valdez

Today we went on a Stan Stephens Glacier - Columbia Glacier Cruise.  We had to be at the Cruise office at 11:00 a.m., so since it is just a few blocks from the campground we are in we walked there.  Prior to that, we combined efforts and cooked & ate a big breakfast since the cruise advertised that they serve a light lunch on board.

We used our Alaska Tour Saver 2 for 1 voucher, so the 7 hour cruise cost a total of $125.00 for Bob & I. Ginger & Jesse used their Tour Saver voucher also.

The cruise ship departed at noon as planned.  A woman was the Captain of the ship as well as told the tourists what to look at, history, stories and interesting information .  She did a very good job as well as the rest of the crew.

Glacier Spirit

We  travel  Port Valdez up the Valdez Arm, around a big part of Heather Island , down Columbia Bay to where we viewed Columbia Glacier.  Then we went up the Columbia Bay on the opposite side, back around the Valdez Arm on the opposite side , on to Port Valdez and back to the harbor where we started the cruise from.  (This area is also called the Prince Henry Sound.)

Prince Henry Sound was the center of the Good Friday, 9.2 on the Richter scale earthquake in 1964 so there was many changes in that area after that earthquake.

Valdez is an important gateway to Interior Alaska.  As the most-northerly “ice-free” port in the Western Hemisphere, and connected by the Richardson Highway to the Alaska Highway system, Valdez offers the shortest link to much of the interior Alaska for seaborne cargo.

We passed several commercial fishing boats who either had their nets out catching pink salmon or were patiently waiting for their time to put out a net to catch fish.

We saw a 'tender' that picks up fish

 from the commercial fisherman.

There were a lot of iceburgs in the water.  Some of the iceburgs “looked like” they had blue accent LED lights under them.   However, the ice is blue because the physical properties of the water molecule absorbs all of the colors in the spectrum except the blue, which is transmitted.   When chunks of ice break off the glacier, it is called calving.

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Some of the icebergs were crystal clear.

There were lots of small chunks of ice floating around in the water as well as large iceburgs.

Halfway through the cruise, we reached the Columbia Glacier.  It was very large, but as all glaciers, it is continually changing and getting smaller.  Bob said he thought the sound of the glacier reminded him of the popping sound when you pour milk over Rice Krispies.  We spent quite a while stopped or just floating around  looking at the glacier.

They served a light lunch of a cup of clam chowder or minestrone soup, bagel, cream cheese, individual package of oreos & lemonade or water.  Bob and I chose clam chowder and it was very good.  Actually the meal was very filling.

The captain turned the boat in order to go back the opposite direction in the Columbia Bay.  Along some rocky flat banks were hundreds of Steller Sea Lions appearing to be soaking up the sun.    What a sight that was,  especially because there were so many!!!   Large males average 1,200 lbs.; females average 650 lbs. Sea Lions eat during the night;  sunning and resting on rocks during the day.  Bull Head is mostly a male bachelor colony.  They are noted for their boisterous bellowing.

otters floating on a iceburg

Harbor Seals have a round head and large eyes, and are not as social as the Sea Lions.    Females with pups are seen up on the ice bergs near glaciers.  Harbor seals dive up to 600 feet to retrieve their food.  They have short front flippers, and are not agile or safe on land.

As we were going to the Port Valdez, we got in close visual range of the TransAlaska Pipeline Terminal.  The pipeline from Prudhoe Bay on the Artic Ocean to Valdez is 800 miles long.   Work began on the pipeline in 1974 and was completed in 1977.  An average of 52 tankers dock in Valdez each month.  All the oil is presently shipped to American ports.  After the well-known Valdez Oil Spill of 1989, everything including the water is almost back to normal.  In areas that are protected from sea action, oil still exists and the recovery process continues.  Complete recovery is a natural processs  that will take years.

The boat harbor was just a few minutes away from the pipeline terminal.  The captain backed the large boat into the boat slip very smoothly. 

We got off the cruise boat and started walking back to the campground.  Along the harbor we stopped and watched the process of a tender picking up the catch of a commercial fishing boat at the boat dock.  The commercial fishing boat stores their catch in ice water in the hull of their boat.  The tender swings a huge vacuum hose that is attached to a hoist and the hose is dropped down in the fisherrmen’s boat hull and the fish are sucked up and ends up in a huge basket or container on the tender’s boat.  They have a electronic scale attached to the hoist with the basket of fish and weigh it.  Then the fish are put in the hull of the tender’s boat that will be taken to the processor who has a similar hoist and vacuum system at their processing facility.  It was interesting to watch this operation.

After getting back to the camper, we went to a grocery store to get a few items as we are traveling tomorrow and boondocking at least a couple of nights.  After we got back, we grabbed a bite to eat and Bob watched some TV while I started to go through the pictures that we took today.  Bob needed to go get fuel for the truck and generator, so we went to get that.  He also wanted to drive to the weir to see if there was any bears in sight.  No bear was seen, so we drove up past the weir till we had to turn around.  We drove past the weir and down a little and noticed a truck turn around in the highway and park on the other side of the road.  We could tell they were watching something, so we slowly pulled over just in time to see a brown grizzly in the ditch about to cross the highway.  About then, he saw us and decided not to cross but instead went into the weed and trees.  We caught sight of him a couple of times and he walked across a rocky shelf way up high on a rock cliff.  Finally he was out of sight.  We thought maybe he would go down the cliff on the other side and cross over on that side, but he didn’t.  After a while, we drove and parked in the parking lot next to the weir thinking we might see him cross over.  We waited a few minutes, but gave up and left and got our fuel we set out to get.  We did get a few pictures when he was in sight.  We also got a picture of a eagle flying overhead.

I worked on the blog for a while after we got back home as well as put thing up for traveling mode.  I was to the point of uploading some pictures to the blog, and noticed it was barely churning, so I gave up on that and got to bed sometime after 1:00 a.m. 

I  think everyone enjoyed the cruise today but I believe we probably enjoyed the wildlife cruise we took in Seward better because we saw more wildlife, and even a humped back whale.  I was a little miserable on today’s cruise because I felt totally exhausted during the cruise…could not stay awake.  All I wanted was to lay down somewhere and go to sleep, but instead I sat down and kept nodding off trying desperately to stay awake but couldn’t.  I think I made a big mistake of taking one motion sickness pill when I was already feeling so exhausted.  I get that feeling of exhaustion sometimes for no reason, and today was not a good day to be that way….not on a 7 hour cruise.  I really don’t think I missed out on that much because I seemed to hear the captain say things and would look & take pictures… but it was a miserable day for me and I was really looking forward to the cruise.  Oh well, I got through it but was sure glad to get back to the RV and in bed when I finally got there.

We have been very lucky as the weather in Valdez has been great the whole time we’ve been here, which the locals say is unusual and the nice weather is far and in between.  Clouds were filling the sky, the wind was getting up, and the temperature was getting cooler by the time we went to the weir tonight.  I guess since the weather is changing for the worse, it’s time to leave this little harbor town called Valdez.  Bob and I liked this town but the food prices at the grocery store was exorbitant…glad I don’t live here;  we couldn’t afford it and the closest big city that a person could get cheaper groceries would be Anchorage which is 304 miles away.  Also fuel prices are higher especially out of the big cities.  I honestly do not know how people can make it financially in these low populated areas in Alaska.  I think it would be bad enough in the big cities in Alaska.  They have to be very, very frugal folks.

Hope your day is a happy day!!!

Ent. $125.00 Cab/

Groc $92.67 Cab/

Gas $4.559/gal x .87 gal = $4.00 Cab/Diesel $4.659/gal x 49.151 gal=$229.00 Cab/

jl