Whittier, Alaska - July 19th to 20th, 2022
Whittier was a quick visit for us. We stayed just one night. For us, it was mainly a place to catch the ferry over to Valdez. However, Whittier has an interesting history.
Tuesday we drove from Seward to Whittier. More rain was in the forecast, but it was not raining in the morning. Our isolation days were over and now we were just required to wear masks for five days. Since it wasn’t raining yet, we stopped at Exit Glacier and walked the one mile wheelchair accessible trail to a viewpoint of the glacier.
Most of the drive to Whittier was retracing the Seward Highway, which we had been on before. However, despite the clouds, we had better visibility of the beautiful views this time around. However, when we made the turn onto Portage Glacier Road, the rain started and low clouds settled in to block our views. We could only see the near shore of Portage Lake and that was about it. There are scenic cruises to the other side of the lake to see Portage Glacier, but we did not stop to check them out.
Just past the lake is the fee booth for the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. The toll was $13 for our van, just like all other passenger vehicles and RV’s. After paying, we were assigned a lane to wait in. The tunnel is just one lane and is shared between train traffic and vehicle traffic. Traffic lights and gates control the direction of traffic and who gets to go next. The direction of travel alternates about every 15 minutes to half an hour. We arrived at 2:50 pm and had to wait until 3:30 pm for our turn. The tunnel is 2.5 miles long as it goes through the base of Mount Maynard. It is the longest highway tunnel in North America. The speed limit is 25 mph, so it takes about ten minutes to drive from one end of the tunnel to the other.
When you come out of the tunnel, you are in Whittier. There is not much to the town of Whittier. The first left took us over to the Whittier Bay Campground, run by the city, where we planned on spending the night. The campground is a gravel parking lot with a couple of vault toilets and a garbage dumpster. It supposedly has some nice views. We managed to spot a couple of tall, gorgeous waterfalls on the nearby mountains before the fog obscured them from our view.
A posted sign said to pay for camping at the harbor office. We weren’t sure where that was, so we asked another camper. He described the Harbor Master Office to us, so we headed into town to find it. The Whittier Harbor Master was listed in Google Maps, now that we knew the Harbor Office and the Harbor Master Office were the same thing. The person in the office was very friendly and gladly took our credit card for payment. It was $20 per night to camp. As the evening progressed, the rain got heavier and the winds got stronger. Luckily it was a shorter walk to the toilet than where we stayed in Seward, because it felt like we were walking through a storm to get there. Needless to say we spent the evening inside our toasty Red Tail Lodge (our van).
While we waited for our ferry to Valdez Wednesday, we walked around Whittier. Check in for the ferry was not until 1:15 pm, so we had a few hours to kill. There isn’t much to see in Whittier. It was initially a military facility. Most of its couple hundred inhabitants live in one building, the high-rise condominium called Begich Towers.
We parked near the ferry terminal. First we strolled along the marina, with its handful of little shops. At the end is the Inn at Whittier hotel.
Then we circled back to the ferry terminal and took the pedestrian tunnel, which runs under the railroad yard, over to “downtown” Whittier, Downtown is mainly one building with all the amenities like a laundromat, grocery store, gift shop, and the Prince William Sound Museum. Next to it is the Anchor Inn hotel. Just a couple of blocks away is Begich Towers (formerly the Hodge building), with a school across the street from it. There is a tunnel that connects Begich Towers to the school so that the kids can easily get to school during the winter, out of the bad weather. Across the street from Begich Towers in the opposite direction is a small log cabin, with a fenced in area next to it which houses a pet reindeer.
After our walk, we returned to our Red Tail Lodge to eat lunch. Then it was time to line up for the ferry.
The ferry boat was the same layout as the one we took from Skagway to Haines (Haines, Alaska - June 14th to 15th, 2022). However, at Whittier, the boat docked so that vehicles could drive straight on from the end of the boat. When we reached Valdez, the vehicles would unload from the side.
The fog lifted during our five and three quarter hour ride. As we pulled away from Whittier, a group of jet skiers were going faster than we were. All Ann could think about was how cold those people must be.
We passed by so many little islands along the way. It looked like most, if not all, of those islands were uninhabited. All you could see were trees.
We saw a little bit of wildlife. First it was sea lions on a small rock outcropping. Then Ann could a glimpse of a whale tail as it dove. A couple of sea otters swam by the boat. There was also a small chunk of sea ice that floated by, with sea gulls perched on top.
There were fishing boats every now and then. We could see some of them hauling in their nets. One fisherman on one of the boats decided to put on a show for the ferry boat and was doing pull ups.
Since it was such a long ferry ride, we planned on eating dinner on the boat. We remembered there was food service on the ferry from Skagway to Haines. What we didn’t notice was that the food was not available during the whole voyage. It was served cafeteria style and was only open three times per day, once for each meal. The only other food available was a limited variety of junk food from a vending machine. The food selection on the BC Ferries we had taken to and from Vancouver Island earlier in the season was much better, but we did not take advantage of it. Ann brought a water bottle with her, but Keith did not. He discovered there were cups of ice water available, so he had a few of those. We also brought a few granola bars with us. Thank goodness. We ate lunch early that day and dinner service did not start until 6 pm. We were pretty hungry, so we broke out the granola bars.
At 6 pm, the line started forming for the dinner service. In addition to their regular grill items (hamburgers, fish, and French fries), there were a couple of specials on the board. One was ravioli with mixed veggies and garlic bread. That sounded good, so we both ordered that. The ravioli was served to us right away, unlike many of the grill items which were made to order. However, we quickly finished our meals and were still hungry. So Keith got back in line and ordered some French fries. By the time we received the fries, it was close to 7 pm. Shortly afterwards, they shut down the food service. So if you’re on board and want something to eat, don’t dawdle!
Just before docking at Valdez, we passed by the large tank farm where they store the oil before shipping it out. Valdez is the end terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline which runs all the way from Prudhoe Bay.
It was 8:30 pm by the time we docked at Valdez. Luckily, our campground was less than a mile from the ferry terminal.
Whittier was not the prettiest town we’ve ever been to, but we found it somewhat intriguing. Better weather probably would have left us with a better impression.
Check out our related video: Whittier, Alaska
(Ann)