We only have a couple more days here in Alaska. We have one last activity planned for this trip, a glacier cruise. The lady at the front desk yesterday was kind enough to call Stan Stephens Cruises to arrange to have them pick us up from the campground instead of us having to walk. We got picked up at 10:00am and by 10:02am we were at the Stan Stephens Cruises office to check in for our six hour Columbia Glacier Cruise ($132 USD / person). We began boarding the Glacier Spirit at 10:30am and Steve immediately found a table for six next to a window on the upper level. Everyone took a seat inside except for Dave, Cathy and Michael who took seats outside at the back of the boat.
The cruise starts at the Port of Valdez and goes through Valdez Arm. I do not think it was too long into the trip when the captain spotted harbor seals. First wildlife sighting of the trip. Because it was going to take a bit of time to get to Columbia Glacier, we were served lunch. The menu was clam chowder or minestrone soup along with a bagel and Oreo cookies. What was funny was that as soon as the captain saw some type of wildlife, everyone would stop eating and head either outside or to a window to see. I think during lunch we saw our first humpback whale of the trip.
Once we finished lunch, we were heading through Columbia Bay on the way to Columbia Glacier. As we were getting closer, the water became more populated with ice bergs. Most were small but there was some big ones. Sometimes you would hear the ice bergs crashing against the ship and sometimes you would see sea otters sitting on them. Unfortunately we could not get as close to the glacier as we wanted because of the ice bergs but it still was breathtaking seeing it. I think in total we spent about an hour there.
We left Columbia Glacier and headed over to Point Bull Head on Glacier Island. On this run we saw mountain goats, steller sea lions and more humpback whales. The boys were very happy with all of the wildlife that we saw. We finished up the tour with dall’s porpoises leading us back to the harbor. Even though it rained and it was windy, everyone really enjoyed the cruise.
We got back to the dock around 6:00pm. As we were walking back to catch the shuttle bus, we walked by a restaurant and decided just to have dinner there. I guess tomorrow night’s dinner is going to be a huge buffet. We stopped and picked up some ice cream on the way back to the campground.
Steve and Linda decided to have an early night while the boys came over. While we were watching a movie, I look out the window and I see Cathy yelling “BEAR”. And sure enough running across the marsh was a bear. Everyone was so excited that we got to see a bear in the wild. Now our trip is complete.
Today’s miles = 0
Total miles = 1330.2
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