Columbia Glacier, Alaska, United States
the Columbia Glacier
we heard from other people and decided
to do the tour to the Columbia Glacier, we got told we should go with Lulu
Belle as Capt Fred uses his boat and does this tours since 1979 and he does not
care to be back in time. After talking with them we got put on the list and
said we will come on Friday morning to the office to pay.
Todays weather forecast said that the
clouds will lift and we could already see all the mountains and so we decided
to go: we were quit busy (as per Paul Gine is too eager and has no patience).
In the Prince William Sound:
- It is famous for it’s scenery and wildlife – that is why we will do a 8 hour boat tour
- It is 70 mile wide and the gulf extends 30 mi north and is between Valdez and Whittier
- A sound is a large sea or ocean inlet: deeper, than a bight, wider than a fjord or narrow sea channel
- 1741 the 1st person in the area was Vitus Bergin: a Danish navigator sailing for Russia and he anchored near Kayak island
- 1778 James Cook entered in 1778 and it was named after Georg III son Prince William Henry who was at that time 13 years old and was serving for the Royal Navy
- 1790 Spanish Explorer Salvador Fidalgo came and named several places like Valdez & Cordoba – he landed and claimed it for Spain
- 1793 Russian Alexander Baranof arrived in Chugach Bay and started a port where the first ship got built in Russian America: his wife lived in St. Petersburg and he took an Aleut woman as a mistress and also had children with her and married her after his wife died
- Its glacier fringed with the Columbia Glacier being on of the largest and most magnificent one of the tidewater glaciers: it is also the 2nd fastest moving glacier in the world and travels about 80 ft per day and discharges 2 cubic miles of ice into the Sound annually – it has receded more than 12 miles since1986 and its currently 34 miles and 3 miles wide and more than 3000 ft thick in some places: it is the greatest glacial contributor in North America. The Glacier was named in 1899 for the Columbia University In New York City. When it ends at the ocean it is as high as a football field
Let’s set sail
We arrive at the dock and get the
first introduction: first of all, the boat is super cute with lots of teak and
wood and super nice looking. We can walk around everywhere go up to the top and
into the bridge house. After a few rules we are sailing out of the harbour of
Valdez – the super nice mountains in the background and it is funny as Capt
Fred talks all the time and has a lot of info about the area, the oil and it’s
disaster, the earthquake, the fishing, the gold rush, the glaciers, the animals
– anything to do with the area – he knows about and he talked about it – I
don’t think I can remember all.
As we leave we learned that Peter Pan
is a huge fishing company and if you buy the fish there you get it right from
them – this was where we drove through yesterday by accident.
The relaxing sea otters
Over the course of the day we had
several highlights the first one was to see the lazy sea otters swimming in the
ocean, watching those cute little animals is a lot of fun, and he stopped the
boat so we had plenty of time watching them.
Salmon Fishing
We came by a boat with the fishing
nets out – as we learned at the moment the salmon run started but the fishing
boats still have to wait until the numbers of salmon up the river reached it’s
goal and then they can start fishing, so they sit out there and fish. One boat
was already fishing – as they catch each year also Salmon for the hatchery. And
we watched on how it works: They had the net out and it is a huge circle of the
fishing net and as we approach they started to pull in the net, it is amazing
on how huge the net is, I mean the whole boat is full with only the fishing net
– and we saw that they had a lot of Jelly fish they pulled up, once the nets
were nearly in we saw the Salmon jumping in the net. Then the boat went over
towards the big boat which then put a huge sucker hose into the fishing net and
sucked up all the fish and they were shooting down into the boat – really cool
to watch, it is amazing on how many fish were in the net.
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We get wet on Glacier Island
We then went towards Glacier Island,
there we saw super cool coast line with lots of rocks and trees as well some
eagles and then some kind of Puffin birds – I’m not sure I saw them. He went
several times into caves – the water super turquois in color and he went so
close to the rocks we could actually touch it – it was super amazing – once
Paul was standing in the front (Titanic Style) when he moved the boat and he
was nearly under the waterfall and barely escaped. And soon later we went into
a huge cave and super eager as we are: standing as close to the front as
possible when he went in and send a huge wave and we got soaking wet!!!! Now
it’s not only cold but also wet – haha he is such a joker – but they have a
towel and if we need it even a dryer on board.
Waterfalls
Let’s not forget to mention the
waterfalls – I mean if you look up you can see waterfalls everywhere – I think
that is part of being in Alaska. He did sailed by some really close and one of
them the Anderson Waterfall is the biggest one in the area and it was super
stunning to look up to it. As well driving closely by some small cascades going
right in the ocean where we sailed by – really close to the shoreline – which
made it so cool to have a close look at the rough Alaskan Shoreline.
And in the distance we could see a
cruise ship: it was a Princess Cruise.
Super cool sea lions
We forget that we are wet and cold and
watch the sea lions along the shoreline with their puppies – as per Paul they
are smelly – as per Gine they are so cute to watch that you don’t think about
the smell. As we were wet and cold we decided to have a hot coffee and a Chilli
dog – which totally warmed us up and now we are super ready for the next best
and coldest part of the journey.
Our first icebergs
As we sailed along we can see the
first small icebergs in the water we are super excited, and then come bigger
once, now we feel a little bit like on the titanic. And when you look in the
water it is so clear you can see the ice under the water too. Some of them are white
and some of them are blue. It was also cool to see some birds sitting on the
icebergs.
Then we saw some bigger once and Capt
Fred told us, that here is an underwater mountain and the icebergs can get
stuck, the water was here only 38 ft deep – so there was a accumulation of
several bigger icebergs and we went in between them. I thought it was
fascinating to see black, grey, white and blue icebergs.
Sea otters love icebergs
As we venture deeper into the Columbia
Bay more and more icebergs are here, and then we see some sea otters on the
icebergs. Capt Fred said, if he now approaches them slow they will watch us,
and then all jump in the water and that is what they did – it was super cute to
watch them do it.
In between the icebergs in front of
Columbia Glaciers
And then we all wait because after the
next corner we will be able to see the famous Columbia Glacier – and there it
is – a huge gigantic glacier – lot and lots of ice and it all drops into the
water – except you nearly can’t see the water. Capt Fred said he will try to
get to a ¼ mile to the glacier if possible, and we venture through more and
more ice bergs, soon are surrounded by icebergs – icebergs and more icebergs.
When he said he has to stop here we can take pictures, but he can’t go closer and
we are still 3 miles away. He also told us, that yesterday he could drive close
to it, all this ice came down in the last 24 hours.
It is super amazing, the mountains and
icebergs reflect in the water – and now when looking down all you can see is
ice – it was so super cool – and also super super cold!!! I wonder how the
people who tried to find the North West Passage must have felt in this freezing
cold!!. But nevertheless an unforgettable adventure to be surrounded by
icebergs.
Seals on the ice
And when you look closely and check
out the icebergs you can see seals on the floating icebergs everywhere. You can
only watch and get freezing cold hands taking a picture.
Christmas pictures in front of the
“Chicken Glacier”
Capt Fred said that he will drive to
the Chicken Glacier – so we can take a picture to be in front of an ice wall –
as those glaciers are so much smaller, there are less icebergs so it is for
those who are too chicken to go close to the Columbia glacier and today he is
too chicken to go closer – so we see more glaciers close by. And when Sarah
took our pictures – they already prepared and made “Merry Christmas” Pictures
for us – so this year we are prepared. And during we were there we heard a
cracking and falling – so he went closer to one of the glaciers and we waited
for quiet a while in the hope to see a big iceblock falling – we did hear
several ones and we did see some smaller ones – but not the big one. It was
funny we are all freezing cold and we stand there and wait to see the ice
falling.
It's time for some Salmon Chowder
As we head back, we decided it’s time
to have something warm and to get warm – we head inside, sit down and enjoy the
view through the windows and have a warm Salmon Chowder – now that brings us
back to life. A hot coffee and some chocolate and we are ready to do something:
Paul is driving the boat
Yes Paul loves to drive everything
with an engine, and see there he asks, and yes he can drive the boat and so he
is on the wheel bringing us hopefully back. Capt Fred said it is not ok, if
only Paul drives so Gine get’s her 5 Min of fame too heading towards a fishing
boat.
At the Oil Terminal
After going through the Valdez narrows
we can see the oil terminal really well, here they store the oil from Prudence
bay, the pipeline goes 800 miles and comes here, and the oil tanker leave from
here daily.
And it’s sunny when we head back
As we head back into the harbour the
sun is out, the mountains are in the sunshine with blue sky and it is actually
warm when you are out on deck!!! Or we are now so used to the cold that
everything a bit warm feels warm. It was an amazing trip and we saw so many
super cool things.
A note from Kathy
Arriving at our Camper we saw a note,
Kathy left it for us, as she is today in Valdez and recognized our Camper
again, after saying Hi to Mandy we drive over and visit with here. She is one
of the fellow RV’s also up here in Alaska and we run into her and her friends
now several times: at the Salmon Glacier – Boya Lake and now here. Who knows
when we meet again.
Time to head to the harbor for another
free night with ship, ocean and mountain view.
They say Valdez is like Alaska’s
Switzerland – I’m only not so sure why, as Switzerland is not on the Ocean.
A visit to the Cemetery
Before leaving Valdez we have a quick
stop on the way out at the cemetery. What is unique here are the crosses with
the 3 beams. We walk a bit through it and the crosses really look different.
What also is very interesting here is, that there are a lot of “unkown” graves. And they have a super
cute bear carved out of stone on display.
- The crosses are Russian orthodox style (the eastern Orthodox church is the 2nd largest Christian church in the world wit 300 Mill followers – the US alone has 7 Million)
- The top bas represents the plaque that hung over Christ’s head during the cruzification (if it is a small top it is male and if the small top is peaked it is for a female)
- The middle symbolizes the beam on which Jesus’s arms were stretched and the slanted bottom bar isfor the footrest on which Jesus’s feet were nailed
- The unknown Soldiert: the black Engineers of the 97th Army Crops of Engineers was a unit of Negro Soldiers which helped building the Alaskam Highway. One of them Major Banks died soon after arrival at the age of 22 and because he was black there was a lot of discussion if he could get buried, they finally took a small piece of land in the corner of the cemetery across the creek called the black door. In 1992 another member of the Black Engineers unit erected a market for every young soldiert
The Salmon Hatchery
Ok so we heard a lot that the pink
Salmon is starting to return so we decided to go to the hatchery and have a
check if it is true and also in the hope to see a bear eating Salmon. Ok we
didn’t see bears, but we did thousands of Salmon in front of the Hatchery: the
river was really dark where they were and you could see a bit of them, once in
a while they got spooked and the whole water started moving. Close by were some
Seals and Sea lions sitting in the water – most of them didn’t do anything, I
guess they were overeating and already to full. But once in a while we saw a
Seal diving in and catching a fish or throwing it to the sea gulls. It was
super cool to see.
Also we saw the Fishing boats fishing
Salmon – I guess they are now allowed, amazing on how many ships are out there.
- The Hatchery releases every year 250 Mill Pink Salmon and 2 Mill Coho Salmon
- Coho Salmon is more for fisherman has they put in more fight when they get caught
- The Hatchery needs 400.000 Pink Salmon to fill its incubators: there is a 29 step fish ladder and leads them into the Hatchery where they can spawn: then the eggs get put in incubators: daily around 20.000 fish go up the ladder
- The Salmon return starts in Mid of June and peaks in Early July (we are in prime season)
- Alaska has 5 different Salmon: Chinook (King), Chum (Dog), Coho (Silver), Sockeye (Red), Pink (Humpy)
- The Pink Salmon is the smallest with 3-5 pounds, they are 2-year fish – the Hatchery helps the fish go through their first year of life: then they get released into the ocean this is called ocean ranching. Those Salmon return a month earlier than the other Salmon starting in middle of June this gives an extended fishing season
- Coho Salmon a three year fish: they need an extra year of fresh water before going to sea
- During their Lifespan the Pink and Coho travel as far as the Aleutian Islands and to Washington State before returning to Alaska
Oh and before leaving after seeing all
that Salmon: Gine said we have to cross the road and check out the waterfall
there with it’s blue water.
2025-05-22