Prince William Sound

Yesterday we took a very crowded cruise on the Prince William Sound, out of Valdez.  We thought that the boat would be half empty when we changed our cruising date on Monday.  Since it was very foggy and raininy on Monday we decided to change the date to yesterday.  The cruise line said, no problem, we have plenty of room. On well, we had a beautiful day on the water.  We saw Dall's Porpoise, lots of Sea Otters, Steller Sea Lions, Bald Eagles and Puffins.  We also saw several glaciers and water falls.

 We saw over 30 Sea Otters in the group..here are a few up close.

Next was the Anderson Glacier and falls.  You can't see the glacier at the top of the falls from this picture.

 Then we started to see ice burgs in the water as we approached the Columbia Bay and the Columbia Glacier.

We saw this guy playing in that very cold water.  Then the lady captain, Karen, weaved her way through all the large and small pieced of ice to get us as close as she could to the Columbia Glacier.  This first picture shows a wall of ice 200 ft high...she said there was 400 ft below the water.

 Nancy O'Bosky and Shelia Mix smiling despite the very cold air.

 I took a panarama of the glacier...This one of the largest glaciers in North America.

Some of the pieces of ice were so blue.

Sea Otters like to lay on the ice burgs.  We saw several groups on different pieces of flat ice.

 Then we saw Puffins in the water, flying and nesting.

This was a large group of Stellar Sea Lions, sunning themselves.  

Here is a picture of the Anderson Glacier...you can see it at the top of the mountain with the falls under it.
Today we leave Valdez heading north.  Fall is fast approaching here in Alaska.  The temp outside in the morning has been in the 40's and the fireweed is getting close to the top.  Alaskan's say when the fireweed blooms to the top, summer is over...it is getting close.

This picture was taken several weeks ago.  Here around Valdez the blooms are almost to the top. Just a couple more stops and we should be back over the border into Canada in about a week.  I should have internet when we are in Tok, before heading across the border...if not this may be the last post for a few weeks.