In Alaska #11–Traveling to Valdez

After leaving Trail River, the day got wetter and wetter, so in that sense it was a good travel day.  Not that travel days are better if they are wet, but wet days are better used as travel days than play or sight-seeing days.

Decided to got straight through to Whittier so I wouldn’t have to tackle the unknown of the tunnel the same morning as the unknown of the ferry.  Stopped briefly at Williwaw Campground just to see what I would be missing by doing so, and while it looked like a perfectly nice CG, it also didn’t leave me feeling that I was depriving myself by not staying there.  Got one decent picture, of a glacier (I think).

Also stopped to take a picture of what looked like a chip off a glacier.

You can see how gray the day was.

I suspect the girl (ok, ok, young woman, but they all seem like girls to me these days, privilege of age?) who took the tunnel toll gave me a break.  She charged me only $13, and if I had read the prices correctly technically it should have been $22.  But I did not complain.  

The process (the tunnel is one-way and alternates east-bound and west-bound traffic) was clear and well-automated.  The toll-taker told me what lane to get into, and from there it was read signs and obey lights.  Here’s where I waited (and had lunch.)

This guy . . .

. . . mystified me rather.  It was raining–not sprinkling, but raining–and quite windy, and yet he sat and waited as you see until it was almost time to move.  My only speculation is that he travels the tunnel often, and does this to alleviate the boredom?  Who knows.

The tunnel itself felt mildly spooky to me.  I remembered it was long (2.5 miles, the longest highway tunnel in North America, I just googled it so it must be true, right?), but I  had forgotten how long, and while I knew that it was big enough for big rigs, it seemed very skinny to me.  Plus it also is used for trains, so train tracks run down the middle, making driving . . . odd.   They had all kinds of safety warnings (don’t stop, don’t follow too close, what to do if . . . . ) for me to contemplate as I drove, and just as I was thinking “surely it wasn’t more that 4 miles, was it?”, it ended, to my relief.  

Finally found the Creekside CG in Whittier, which wasn’t awful but neither was it wonderful, especially given the pouring rain, picked my spot (close to potties or view and privacy?  View–such as it was (below) and privacy won.

Took all afternoon, but did manage to do the previous post, which was the best possible use of the time under the (wet and gloomy) circumstances.  

I was very tense about the ferry ride, not only about negotiating the unknown process (which turned out to be fine, people told me what to do at all points), but also just surviving 8.5 hours on the ferry.  Given how seasick I’ve gotten the last several times I was out on any kind of boat, would I get seasick?  Excessively tired (being kept up well past my usual bedtime) or hungry?  But overall, it was fine.  I did get sleepy in the afternoon, and tried to nap on one of the hard plastic recliners they provide on the “solarium”, which mostly proved my usual precautions regarding my back are warranted, and rather bored around hour six, but overall, it was nowhere near as bad an experience as I had feared.  

On a sunnier–or even less rainy–day, it would probably be an unadulterated pleasure.  Even in the rainy and foggy conditions, the scenery was anywhere from lovely to haunting to spectacularly gorgeous. 

These are from early in the trip. It was a challenge to get good pictures because of the rain, whether from inside or outside.  But these will give some idea of how things looked.  From inside:

That’s a glacier above.

From outside (same glacier immediately below):

The effect of islands at different distances through the misty atmosphere fascinated me and kept reminding me of Chinese and Japanese paintings.

We also saw lots of fishing boats all along the way.  ‘ nuff said.

I got to take a few pictures outside from the front of the boat . . .

. . . before they closed it off to us, which I found just annoying.  Yes, it was windy up there, and mildly exciting making your way around the side to get there, but still.  

They provided several screens that allowed us to track our progress, which was kinda cool and helped while away some time.  This one was toward the beginning of the trip.  We’re the green pentagon.

The detour around Bligh Island to Tatitlek and back (next two shots) added three hours to the trip. By the time we got to that, I was already wishing we were done already, so I was feeling a bit grumpy about it, but kept my whining to myself. And once we were back on track, the scenery just got better and better, in part because the rain eased up

The shot immediately above shows where we were when the one below was taken.  The marker shown below is where the Valdez oil tanker ran aground.  Given how far the marker was off the side of our boat, you can see how far outside the safe channel the tanker was.  The shot is zoomed in a bit.

A few shots coming up the Valdez Arm.  At this point they had us limited to the sides of the boat, and boy! was I tempted to sneak under the chain and go forward for pictures.  But I figured I’d just get in trouble, so restrained myself.

And coming into Valdez.  Took me (and others, based on conversations) awhile to figure out the lights weren’t the town but the oil operation.

It was all so gorgeous it perked me right up and I hardly knew where to point the camera, or when to stop because surely four or five pictures of essentially the same thing are enough.  

I finally figured out where the town is, and shortly afterward we docked.  I don’t know whether CJ was mainly excited to see me when I got back to the van, or excited because it meant she might get out to pee.  Maybe both.

It was still light when we got to to CG and checked in and set up and CJ taken care of, so I took a picture.

And some more today, all taken from the CG.

I had paid for an electrical site because I was worried about being cold, but that left me with only a view of big rigs looming over me, so this morning asked to be moved to a tent site with no hookups.

So now this is my view as I do this post.

Today has been mostly dealing with practicalities and doing this post.  Tomorrow I’ve signed up for a short day tour 5 hours), kayaking out to a glacier, hiking up on to the glacier, and kayaking back.  Probably won’t be all that strenuous, since they drive us out to some starting place out of town, but I’ll find out tomorrow.  For $140 you’d think they could provide lunch, but we have to bring our own, and our own water.  Anyway, today I’m resting up from my late night, and for my day tomorrow.