We left Hope “early” Monday morning towards Portage through a toll tunnel to Whittier. The narrow tunnel was one-lane only including train tracks! One is able to drive through the tunnel every hour for a quarter of an hour. The rest of the time either cars from the other direction run through or even trains!
In Whittier we then drove onto a Ferry that drove us all the way to Valdez during the afternoon. When we arrived, we quickly booked a spot on a cruise for the next day and had some Pizza in an Italian restaurant.
Next day we boarded the ship Lulu Belle for a day cruise around the bays and up to the face of the huge Columbia glacier.
Of course once again we were able to see quite some wildlife including sea otters, steller sea lions and a humpback whale! But the real highlight was the 1 mile wide face of the Columbia glacier. Since a calving event in 1972 that opened the tidal glaciar to fresh sea water, it is the fastest receding glacier in North America! At some summer days, the glacier can recede more than 1 meter a day!
Driving all the way back to the face is impressive as well since the boat has to get through a huge bay full of swimming icebergs! At the face, we spent quite some time watching the glacier calving (ice breaking off the face and causing waves).
