Bear Paw Camper Park Valdez, Alaska Day 2

Today was an incredible day!

There are no adequate words or pictures to convey the awesomeness of the Lu-Lu Belle Glacier Wildlife Cruise…

We left the Valdez Harbor at 11:00 am.  The Lu-Lu Belle is a smaller cruising boat with varnished teak  and oriental rugs inside.  There were about 30 passengers.

As we left the harbor we saw sea otters floating on their backs.  As we got closer they fled.

We entered Prince William Sound after passing through the Valdez Narrows.  We saw a juvenile humpback whale.  I watched in awe as he dove through the water.  Initially they thought he was feeding and then he started to travel forward and move on.  The boat followed him for awhile until we finally saw his fluke.  I honestly did not take a single picture.  I just wanted to be present and to watch.  I did not want to watch the whale through the lens of a camera.  I really just wanted to be right there enjoying the moment.  One of the crew members got a picture of the fluke and airdropped it to me.

We passed a fishing boat.  Soon there will be lots more.  The salmon are usually running by now.  We also passed the Wizard, one of the boats on Deadliest Catch.

The captain was able to maneuver the boat very close to the shore as we looked in cracks and crevices for puffins.  He had the boat close enough to the shore that you could stand on the bow and touch the rocks in the cave above the boat.  There was one little guy in there but he did not like all of us peering at him.

As we rounded the bend we saw piles of sea lions on the shore and lots of babies cavorting and flipping in the water.  We watched as they played king of the rock…I could have stayed there all day.  As the boat got closer we noticed the bigger males herding the babies in toward the rocky beach.  They posted themselves along the shore like sentries to keep the moms and the babies on shore and safe.

As be began to approach the glacier the captain had to wield his way among the icebergs floating in the water.  We were up in the bridge watching him navigate the obstacle course and it was impressive.  Sea otters bobbed along.

An iceberg.

The Columbia Glacier was amazing.  The air temperature was 35 degrees with a wind chill of 25.  The water temperature was 32 degrees.  At one point we were in 1,300 feet of ice cold sea water.  We were able to get within 1/4 mile of the face of the ice.  Even from that close it was difficult to fathom its scope.  The walls were 300 feet from the surface of the water and extend down below the water for 700-800 feet.  The mouth of the glacier was about 2 miles wide and it extends 33 miles back into the mountains.  We stayed at the glacier for about an hour waiting for activity.  We actually got to see ice calve off and fall into the water causing a wave that we didn’t feel for more than 5 minutes afterward.  The captain said he had seen pieces of ice as big as a house fly for 1/8 of mile.

The piece of ice off to the left fell off the day before while the captain and his passengers looked on.  It was apparently very dramatic!

The large piece of ice in this picture is bigger than a car.

We learned a lot about the Alyeska Pipeline.  The Port of Valdez is an oil port.  At the time of the oil spill in 1989, the area was not well prepared to deal with a disaster of that magnitude.  The accident happened about 30 miles away from the town when an oil tanker ended up 6 miles off course in shallow water.  There is a permanent marker at the site of the accident. It took years for the area to recover.  There are now lots of safeguards in place to prevent similar incidents and also to deal with a problem should one occur.  There are barges with emergency spill equipment posted every couple of miles along the passage out of Valdez.  These barges are equipped with a crew and ready to move at a moment’s notice should the need arise.  There is also a fully loaded cargo plane sitting in Anchorage that contains all the necessary tools and equipment to deal with an emergency that can be immediately deployed.  A crew is always prepared and on standby.

One of the ways that you can judge the health of a port is by looking at the sea otter population.  Sea otters have over 1,000,000 hairs per square inch.  This is what keeps them warm.  If the sea water contains pollutants then the hair becomes oily and matted and the sea otters cannot survive.  We saw more than 100 sea otters yesterday.  This is a sign that the oil company is practicing due diligence to keep the water clean and safe.  They also have all kinds of rules about how ballast water needs to be discarded and treated.

All of these additional standards and practices cost the oil companies a lot of money…but they too appear to be thriving.

We had an amazing adventure!  Thanks mom for the wonderful birthday gift!

We didn’t get back to port until 8:30 pm.  The captain doesn’t head home until he is sure that he has shown you all that he can.  He talked for about 6 hours of the 9 1/2 hour journey.  He has a wealth of knowledge about all things Valdez and Prince William Sound.  We would recommend this Lu-Lu Belle adventure to everyone!