College Fjord Scenic Cruising

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Geo: 60.9611, -148.087

After leaving Glacier Bay, we had a lot of sea to cover, as we were cutting across the Gulf of Alaska to reach our final point. On Sunday early afternoon, we entered Prince William Sound – of Exxon Valdez "fame" – and again found ourselves passing through incredibly beautiful fjords. I was surprised by the sudden appearance of dozens of fishing boats – private and commercial – all around us. To me, I felt very conspicuous as our huge ship plyed by them, but most of the fishermen never even looked up. Our destination was College Fjord, which is home to more than 20 glaciers of different types and size. As with Glacier Bay, as we entered Prince William Sound we suddenly saw all kinds of sealife -- whales, seals, and lots of sea otters. It became common place to look off the balcony and simply watch the sea otters lying on their backs, usually snacking on shell fish of some kind – just watching us as we floated by. Even with so many opportunities, we failed to get a really good sea otter picture.

Perhaps it was the clear weather, but for me, College Fjord was even more enjoyable than Glacier Bay. We arrived at the first glacier, unfortunately, right as were sitting down for supper. As it was our last night at the table, we did not want to miss it, but also kept looking out the dining room windows and wishing we were outside. When we did finally get outside, we were alongside a huge glacier. K and I kept hearing what we thought was thunder, but couldn't figure out from where it was coming, given the fairly clear skies. It was soon after that we realized the thunder was actually the sound of the glacier moving. It is a sound and experience I know I will never forget. It was sometimes so loud, you could feel it. Sure enough, after most roars, there would soon be a huge chuck of ice breaking off. From a distance, they look small, but we were told that were seven to eight stories tall on average. You'll also notice in many of the glacier photos the blue color. I was not prepared for this, as we learned that the blue color is created because the ice absorbs all the other colors. On bright sunny days, the color is more white, but particularly on overcast days, the shades of blue are quite dark and beautiful.

We returned to our room and tried to repack all of our things and get them ready for our onward land portion. As is annoying custom, all the bags had to be outside by a certain hour. On the non-annoying side, from here on out, we didn't have to handle our bags again until we flew out of Anchorage a week later.

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Photos

Dall Porpoises
These are Dall Porpoises, which are colored like Killer Whales. This pod was "racing" the ship for a while. It was too hard to catch them in the air with the camera.

The Harvard Glacier
Each glacier in College Fjord is named after East Coast Colleges