The Alaskan Marine Highway Ferry is a car/passenger ferry that runs along the Pacific coast to Alaska, and from Valdez to Whittier Alaska every few days. We checked out of McCarthy on July 27th and made our way back to Valdez to stay another night and ensure we were ready to line up for boarding in the 5am hour on July 28th.
We kayaked at Robe Lake on our way back to Valdez, stopped at the Solomon Fish Hatchery again, cooked up some Brats at a lakeside picnic area, and had a drink on the dock before checking in to our hotel and repacking for the next leg of our journey.
The 60 mile drive down McCarthy Rd is a solid two hours and we wanted make sure there were no road delays that would have us miss the ferry, so we came back to Valdez to stay at the Keystone Hotel about a half mile from the ferry dock. It was affordable, clean, and had a 5am breakfast so we could be out the door on time for departure.
We got up 4:30am, breakfast at 5, and in the ferry line by 5:15am. Officially, our departure was 7am, but it takes awhile to load all the vehicles.
We got the truck loaded and boarded to select good seats for the almost six hour ride. We sat in the forward cabin section, but were free to move around to the outside decks, cafeteria, restrooms, and upper deck solarium.
It couldn't have been a more perfect day for the ride. It was clear and sunny with fairly calm seas which hasn't happened many times since we have been in Alaska.
The captain alerted us along the way when animals were sighted and when there was a noteable landmark we were passing. There was breakfast and lunch also available on the ferry. We arrived in Whittier about 12:45pm after a 5.5 hour ride across Prince William Sound.
The Alaskan Marine Highway ferry's are a great way to travel. They are referred to as 'the poor man's cruise'. The passenger price is reasonable, but when you add a vehicle it gets costly! I had researched us getting on the ferry in Bellingham, Washington and going one-way up the coast on the ferry and driving the Alcan Highway home. The cost for us and the truck was almost 5k while spending a solid week on the ferry to get to Alaska.
Whittier was the destination port and is a beautiful city on the west side of Prince William Sound.
The town of Whittier in Alaska is interesting in that almost all of it's 220 year round residents are living in the same building known as Begich Towers. It's a 14-story settlement that has a health clinic, police station and convenience store.
All of the coastal towns in the area- Valdez, Whittier, and Seward were decimated by the March 1964 earthquake (largest ever in US) that registered 9.2 on the Richter scale and lasted for 5 solid minutes. It is interesting to see the before/after pictures and see the devastation and rebuilding from that event in these beautiful coastal towns.
After disembarking the ferry, we left Whittier through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. This is the longest highway tunnel in North America at 2.5 miles and the first designed for -40 Fahrenheit temperatures and 150 mph winds! It is a one way tunnel with alternating, one-way traffic and trains. We were lucky enough to be delayed by a train and got to watch it go through, while we were waiting for our top of the hour departure on our way through to Seward.
Will continue with more about Seward tomorrow ❤️
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