Whittier and Portage Glacier Railroad Tunnel

Today is another beautiful day! I never thought I’d say upper 50’s – 60’s was nice, but it’s pleasant. Mr. Charley’s back is still hurting him, but we took a drive anyway. There’s a few things we missed when we took the Seward Highway to Seward a few weeks back. The Seward Highway is 127 mile road the connects Anchorage to Seward, but there’s a couple of ‘side roads’ that have some cool things to see and do. So we loaded up the girls and hit the road towards Turnagain Arm and the scenic byway.
I think I told you before about Turnagain Arm & the Beluga Point; so today I’ll tell you about the Whittier/ Portage Glacier Access Road. This side road allows access to Portage Glacier, 5.4 miles from the Seward Highway; and to Whittier (11.4 miles), gateway to Prince William Sound. The stretch of road between Portage Glacier and Whittier was a 3 year project to connect that community to the road system. Prior to construction Whittier accessible overland only by train. Vehicle access required the modification of the 2.5 mile long Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel to handle BOTH railroad and vehicle traffic. The tunnel is 1-lane, and cars and trains take turns traveling through it. In summer, the tunnel is open daily 5:30 a.m. to 11:15 p.m., allowing 15-minute alternating directional use for vehicle traffic every half-hour except during scheduled passenger trains. Vehicles must wait in the staging areas on either side of the tunnel when the train is using the tunnel.  I can’t post videos on this blog, but I’m going to try to upload to Facebook so you can see. My pics inside the tunnel really don’t show up good, but I have to tell you, it was kind of cool driving on railroad tracks in a tunnel. At 25 mph, it takes a vehicle 6.5 minutes to travel through the tunnel. The tunnel’s ventilation system combines jet and portal fans. It is the longest highway tunnel and longest highway/railroad tunnel in North America at 13,200 feet.
Here’s some  pics of the Glaciers we saw along the way
 

Once we got out of the tunnel, we entered Portage Glacier which as you can see is cruise ship port.
   
 
Other than the Glaciers, there isn’t much here. Lots of boats for commercial fishing, trains and trucks.

 
Here’s the view as we wait to go back out through the tunnel

 

We stopped at the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Lake on the way out so the girls could take a break. Sadie did surprisingly well through the tunnel.  These girls are more well traveled than most people!

We also stopped at the Williwaw Creek Fish Viewing Platform to see if we could see any salmon. None going “upstream” , none going “downstream”
Very disappointing! 
 
But we did see another glacier!

We also took the 3-mile Alyeska Highway to Crow Creek Mine, Girdwood and the Alyeska Resort Ski area. They have a tram ride you can take up and have lunch. We didn’t do it today since we had the girls, but we’re planning on coming back without them another day.
  

This is the pics from the rearview on the way back to Anchorage. Still haven’t seen any Beluga Whales, but I sure love to see the sun shining off the water.
    
Have a good one everybody, we’re trying to


RV Riding is taking a minute to look back at what you saw and marveling at how awesome it was and how blessed you are to see it