07/06/2023
A big day for Elán yesterday!
After another excellent breakfast at the Alyeska Resort, we set our course for Whittier, on the Kenai Peninsula. The drive was beautiful, driving through mountains the entire way.
The last bit of the drive was through the longest railroad/car tunnel in North American, which cuts through Maynard Mountain for 2.5 miles. Because of the need to accommodate trains and vehicles traveling in two directions, departures are timed, and those cars/trucks driving to Whittier depart on the half-hour. Fascinating.
Arriving in Whittier, one finds a hardscrabble port. A huge amount of commerce, including locally caught seafood, passes through Whittier. It’s a working village, with a few coffee and food shops, but truthfully less than scenic in and of itself, save the surroundings.
We met our captain for the Day, Gabriel. Gabe was born in Alaska and is an expert glaciologist, as well as something of a marine biologist, having studied and worked at the famed Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Mountain climber, diver, survival expert, USCG-certified captain, Gabe has done it all. And he was a fantastic guide.
We spent nine hours with Gabe, traversing a huge amount of Prince William Sound, located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Throughout the course of the day, we visited and learned about numerous glaciers, stopped to buy oysters at a remote (and very isolated) oyster farm, gathered “beach lettuce,” and gathered fish and shrimp, which Gabe cooked for us onboard.
The amount of wildlife is amazing, and through the course of the day we saw seagull and puffin rookeries, dolphins, seals, sea lions, and an abundance of sea otters. It truly is an amazing place, and Gabe extended our time on the water beyond our original schedule to fit it all in. On a rainy, cool day which seemed a little daunting at first, Gabe and the magnificent surroundings made it truly memorable.