Short Cut

How does one shave off 335 miles from a road trip of 520 by driving just 1 to start the day?  Why, by traveling the one and only Alaska Marine Highway!  That's how.  We drove from Eagles Rest campground to the ferry terminal in Valdez and loaded DaRV aboard the MV Chenega, the AMHS fast ferry bound for Whittier.  The 'short-cut'  deposited us in Whittier, a mere 187 miles from our day's destination, Homer, by the sea.  The all-land route is 520 miles and not nearly as much fun.

Explorer Captain James Cook named this beautiful island and mountain studded body of water the "Sandwich Sound", after his patron, the Earl.  His map editors apparently thought better of a Prince William and renamed it appropriately.  On any given day, Orca and Humpback whales may be seen here.  Not for us today, though.  We saw plenty of puffin, kittiwake and other seabirds but, alas, no whale.

The newer, and much faster of two AMHS ships making the crossing, the Chenega took just under 3 hours to cross Prince William Sound on glass-smooth water and deposit the three of us in Whittier.

 We queued up with 70 or so other vehicles and then drove through a two mile long tunnel, emerging at Portage Lake within sight of Potage Glacier.

Having struck out in our effort to fish for halibut in Valdez, we headed for the self-named "halibut fishing capital of the world.  Homer lies literally at the end of the road, on Katchemak Bay and, naturally, it too is surrounded by towering mountains and glaciers.  If one builds a cabin on the ridge above town, the outhouse absolutely must have a view of the bay and glaciers to the south.

Overlook above Homer and Katchemak Bay