Seward to Whittier, Alaska

Day 46 of Alaska Journey
Friday, July 18

Temperature 54°

120 miles from Nikiski to Seward, Alaska

The hills are alive with the sound of music...

Alaskan greetings from Ms. Daisy

It was a pleasant but grey-sky drive from Nikiski to the Seward City Park. We arrived there about 3:10 pm and drove around and got one of the last remaining hookup sites right across from the restrooms and showers. 

This site had water and electric hookups.

The campground is on Resurrection Bay, with great views of the mountains and cruise ships that are entering to dock in the harbor of the 960 ft. deep bay.

Resurrection Bay is the largest fjord along the coast of the Kenai Peninsula. It was formed by a glacier cutting a substantial submarine valley as it advanced and retreated.

Nothing like sharing your land-based campground with a floating one.

Guess who has the right-of-way?

Departing Resurrection Bay for the Sound

Mt. Marathon

The Seward skyline is dominated by Mt. Marathon, formerly known as Lowell Mountain.  There the city holds a race every 4th of July. About eight hundred people participate in a 3-mile, round-trip foot race that takes them up Mt. Marathon's 3022 feet. 

If you look carefully on the left-hand side of the mountain in the photo below you can make out the faint trail.  The fastest recorded time for the race is 43 minutes and 22 seconds. As you might imagine, a crazy race like this started as a barroom bet. Some locals bet the mountain couldn’t be tackled in one hour. That 4th of July in 1915, a small group of local men attempted to win the bet. The winner lost the bet when he crossed the finish line in 62 minutes.

Downtown Seward

After setting up, we walked around town and stopped at a Chugach National Forest Ranger Station. I had an opportunity to meet with the Deputy Ranger, who was black and knew of me. We shared our histories.

The newcomer meets the pioneer.

Honeymooners on the Prince William Sound. These smiles are genuine.

It was time for happy hour, so we went to the Seward Brewing Company for local craft beer samples and rockfish tacos with a spicy veggie topping.

Across the street was the Alaska Sea Life Center, for which we had passes that Lee and Dee had given us. This center is a cold water marine research and education aquarium. 

The big kid on the block

We watched: a 2,000 lb. Steller sea lion known as Woody (who is known for being very prolific), 

and his sidekick.

harbor seals with their roly-poly bodies and flippers that make them slow moving on land but highly mobile in water, and various shore birds. 

I don't know why, but this made me think of "Cisco and Pancho."

Anyhow, a unique feature here was North America's deepest seabird diving habitat (21.5 feet deep), which is home to ten different species of seabirds—eight of which dive under the water. This enabled us to get closer to these birds than we ever could in the wild. It was fascinating to watch them fly and soar in the air then dive and soar in the water just as fast.

On the outskirts of town, we noticed this monument honoring a resident.

Home of the State Flag

  Benny Benson was 13 years old when he designed the Alaska territory flag in 1927. At that time, he was a resident of the Seward children’s orphanage. Benny said he looked to the sky for the symbols he included in his design. He chose the familiar big dipper constellation that he looked for every night before going to sleep at the orphanage.  He said that the blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not Alaskan flower.  The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the Union, and the Dipper is for the great bear symbolizing strength. We were impressed with his reasoning and design for the territorial flag, which became the state flag in 1959.

Day 47 of Alaskan Journey

Saturday, July 19
Temperature 58°, Elevation 105’
93 Miles to Whittier



 

The next day we only had a short travel to Whittier via Portage Valley.

Portage offers a popular visitor center and places for hiking, boating, camping, and skiing.  The valley is also a gateway – the “front door” of Chugach National Forest, the entry point to the Whittier and Prince William Sound. The only way to get there by road is via the Anton-Anderson tunnel. The locals call it the Whittier tunnel.

Just before the tunnel, we stopped at a Forest Service visitor information center on Portage Lake.  Ice floes were floating in the adjacent lake nearby.

Visitor center parking lot

The Whittier tunnel is a one way multi-use highway and railroad tunnel that passes under Maynard Mountain. At 2.8 miles long, it is the second longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America. Eastbound traffic, westbound traffic, and the Alaska Railroad take turns sharing the tunnel. The tunnel fee is $12 one way.

Our turn for the Tunnel entrance. Notice the RR tracks

The tunnel is designed as a single highway lane with a speed of 25 mph. The interior is exposed rock and contains several “safe-houses,” which are small buildings that are to be used in case of severe earthquakes or other tunnel emergencies.  The tunnel also contains several pull-outs, which are reserved for disabled vehicles. A combination of portal fans and jet engines are installed to ensure proper air flow and air quality throughout the tunnel passage.

Description of driving:  Eerie! 

The floor of the tunnel is constructed of textured concrete panels, with the railroad tracks sunken slightly below the road surface.  Of course when our dually wheels make contact with the railroad tracks a slight sliding occurs that makes for frequent white-knuckle squeezing of the steering wheel.  My diesel truck sounded muffled as I follow the red tail lights of the vehicle 100 ft in front of me through the dimly-lighted tunnel.  I felt like Alice in Wonderland sliding down the rabbit’s hole.

It was interesting to come out of the tunnel into the daylight,

and see a cruise ship docked alongside the highway.

The city of Whittier itself is a historical seaside hamlet, established by the U.S. Army during World War II as a secret port. It was recognized as an ice-free, deep-water port. The Federal railroad to Portage was completed in 1943 and became the primary debarkation point for cargo and troops of the Alaska Command.

Of course Daisy found a gift shop.

After WWII, the port continued to be important as part of the Cold War defense network. In 1948, the US  military began construction of the first of two buildings for their military personnel. Today, fewer than 300 people reside in the town supporting the Alaska State Ferry, the Alaska Railroad, freight barging, commercial fishing, the Whittier Harbor, and recreation and tourism. We were impressed to be part of the annual visiting population of over 700,000.

There is a glacier cap running all across the top of this picture

Almost all of the current full-time residents and seasonal workers live in the 14-story Begich Towers pictured above, which also houses the US Post Office, city hall, recreational facilities, and medical clinic.

Of course I had to shout! Nice echo!

One interesting note is that we had to cross a major railroad yard to get to the harbor by taking an underground, lighted pedestrian tunnel.  It’s about the length of a football field with a 30° turn at its middle that blocked visibility to the other end of the passageway. That was important because on the other side was a sign that told us to watch out for bears. On the way back we did not waste any time in transit.

Everything is within walking distance. So we trekked to the harbor area and made arrangements for a 26-glacier cruise the next day and confirmed that we had passage on an Alaska Marine Highway ferry for our journey to Valdez in the following day.

Of course we stopped for lunch at a local mom-and-pop food stand and enjoyed seafood chowder and peel-and-eat shrimp.

We hurried back to our primitive campsite in a light rain. 

Our city campsite was out beyond the stored boats and junkyard of the once seaworthy vessels.

Campground is beyond the once seaworthy.

Be it ever so humble....but waterproof and warm

We had a glacier cruise of the Prince William Sound to prepare for the next day. It would be chilly and damp on the outer boat decks.