Page 121 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

PRINCE WILLIA M SOUND  119

3 College Fjord
Transport map E4. g tour from
Whittier. 8
The College Fjord arm of
Prince William Sound and the
neighboring Harriman Fjord
include an impressive concen-
tration of easily accessible
tidewater glaciers, as well
as myriad valley glaciers and
hanging glaciers (see pp30–31). Black-legged kittiwakes perching on a small ice floe
In 1899, New York railroad
magnate Edward Harriman Kittiwakes
launched a scientific expedi tion The towering cliffs across Passage Arm from Whittier are home to
along the Alaskan coast, a colony of thousands of black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla).
including College Fjord, where During the summer nesting season they can be seen wheeling
he named the glaciers after the around the precarious cliff faces where they nest, breed, and hatch
Ivy League colleges attended their chicks. With a rela tively rapid wingbeat, kittiwakes are highly
by the scientists on board his maneuverable and able to land on narrow cliff ledges even in strong
ship, the George W. Elder. As one winds. In the winter, these pelagic gulls spend most of their time on
travels into the fjord, the glaciers the open ocean, feeding on small fish and plankton.
on the left are named for
women’s col leges and those
on the right for men’s schools. groups or rafts of sea otters and being impeded by the friction
Chunks as large as a house icebergs laden with harbor seals, of ice against rock. It calved so
often calve from the massive and blast their horns with the much ice that it choked the
300-ft- (90-m-) high glacier faces. hope that the vibrations would waters between its 3-mile
cause the glacier to calve. (5-km) wide face and its
However, in the early 1980s, terminal moraine with large
4 Columbia Glacier Columbia Glacier began to icebergs that froze together.
surge at a pace as great as As a result, the glacier face has
Transport map E3. g tour boats 115 ft (35 m) per day, calving receded about 13 miles (21 km)
from Valdez. 8
icebergs into Prince William since 1982 and can no longer
During the 1980s, 40-mile- Sound much faster than snow be reached by ferry, although
(64-km-) long, 2,000-ft- (600-m-) compression on the ice field there are hopes that this may
thick Columbia Glacier was a could replace it. It is thought stabilize. Currently, this active
highlight on the Alaska Marine that the melting ice created a glacier is most readily accessed
Highway route between cushion of water beneath the on day cruises (check out www.
Whittier and Valdez. Ferries main ice sheet, allowing the stephenscruises.com) and
would typically stop amid the glacier to progress without private tour boats from Valdez.

Cruisers aboard a tour boat approaching Columbia Glacier, Prince William Sound

118-119_EW_Alaska.indd 119 02/05/17 2:30 pm