Day 57 - Columbia Glacier, Seals, Sea otters, Whales and Puffins

We booked a tour on the Lu-lu Belle, a beautiful tour vessel with teak and mahogany woods and beautiful oriental rugs that takes small groups on day-long tours from Valdez into Prince William Sound.  Captain Fred Rodolf did a wonderful job of getting us close to wildlife, icebergs and the Columbia Glacier, the second-largest tidewater glacier in North America and largest in Prince William Sound. Every day, 13 million tons of ice break off the face of it, leaving chunks in the water that are often twice as big as the boat.  He’s been doing this tour for 40 years and narrates along the way with very interesting information while he steers the boar. The tour was nine hours long, with wildlife viewing along the way. Captain Fred took us within one-fourth mile of the Columbia Glacier and we stayed there for over an hour while he showed us an up-close 270-degree view of glacier ice that’s 200 to 400 feet tall.

The Lu-Lu Belle is the ship near where people are standing

We saw rafts of sea otters swimming along side the boat

We passed fishing boats along the way.

Sea Lions

Got a glimpse of a whale tail

Seals resting on an iceberg as we passed

Usually only one-tenth of an iceberg is visible above the water.

This is the Columbia Glacier, the second largest in North America and the largest in Prince William Sound.  We were four miles from the glacier when I took this picture.

As we got closer to the glacier the Captain was steering around icebergs and through chunks of ice.

Look how huge this glacier is compared to this vessel in front of it!

It was a fantastic day!!