Whittier and Prince William Sound

This series is from our boat ride on Prince William Sound.


The above picture was taken just before the tunnel to Whittier. This was landscape we got to look at while they purged the tunnel of smoke.
This is a place in Whittier that had already closed down for the winter. For a place with only 192 year round residents, 23 evictions seems like a lot!

Exit Glacier and Seward

This is Exit Glacier just north of Seward. Although Jackie said it looked "like a dirty ski slope," I see it differently. This is Exit Glacier up close and personal. I could hear it cracking and dripping and was pretty anxious to get the picture taken so I could get away from it.
Okay, maybe we were a little close. . .The picture below is from the side of the road on the way south from Anchorage.
This is Seward. The town is directly behind me and they get to look at this view every day. I even met someone from FSU there!

Flightseeing in Denali

That's Mt. McKinley in the background. At 20,320 feet it's the highest point in North America. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were on our way to Talkeetna for our flightseeing tour.

The rest of these photos are from the flightseeing tour. We were supposed to land on the Ruth Glacier, but there was too much snowfall the day before and we would have had to "pack a runway" by allowing the pilot to take off and land several times, leaving us alone on the glacier for a while. The other woman on the flight with us was not in favor of this plan.

The Tip of the Iceburg

This is the view from my hotel room on Lake Spenard. Float planes take off and land on the lake all the time. There are small cabins and floatplane docks all around the lake.
This is the Barry Glacier, which is located on the Barry Arm of Prince William Sound. I have tons of pictures from this half-day cruise. We saw sea otters, Dall's porpoises, harbor seals, and a Steller's sea lion. As indicated by the ice floating in the water, it was a little chilly.
Welcome to Whittier, year round population 192. You have to drive through a 2.5 mile long, single lane tunnel shared by both directions of traffic as well as passenger and freight trains to get there. The tunnel schedule is a neccessity if your travel plans include Whittier.
Okay, this moose is clearly in the Wildlife Conservation area, but we did see 3 wild moose! A female and baby (calf?) ran at the car when I was driving on Tudor Road and Seward Highway. We saw another on the runway when we were taking off for our flightseeing tour of Denali.
This picture of me at 20 Mile River speaks for itself.

Correction: Nanci has informed me that this picture does NOT speak for itself. For those who really need it spelled out, the sign says "NO TARGET SHOOTING," . . . and you can barely read it . . . because people have been shooting at it. Whew, that was painful.

My first post!

Thanks to Amanda Bell (aka California Amanda) for suggesting this site! This is probably the easiest way for me to share the photos from my trip with everybody. There are way too many, but I wasn't sure how many would come out so I just kept snapping. I hope you all enjoy them and let me know if you want to see more. I took about 500!