End of the Earth

Fairly glad to be out of the hotel this morning, its a bit too "historic" for my liking
The weather isnt too good and the sightseeing cruise was cancelled so it is up to me to make my own entertainment today after all!

I headed North in search of some glaciers of my own, not the huge ones I would have seen on the cruise but never mind. Glaciers drop bits into the water over time as they move, you can hear them cracking as you stand there like a loud tree branch snapping noise .

 Calving is the name for dropping chunks of ice into the water and even some of the smaller glaciers on lakes do it, when the glaciers out at sea do it you get icebergs, when the glaciers on lakes do it you get little icebergs, its amazing how blue they look inside, I am not sure the camera can capture it properly so you will have to use you r imagination a bit.

The area I stopped in to look at the mini icebergs was marked out like the waiting lanes for a ferry and I soon discovered why when I drove further up the road- waiting area for the Whittier tunnel.

See that little entrance in the hillside, well thats the tunnel entrance, a tunnel only one lane wide, everything going to Whittier has to go through that tunnel, trains, cars, boats (on trailers obviously!) there is a system for getting through the tunnel since you cant have 2 way traffic. Going to Whittier you go through the tunnel on the half hour and coming back you go through on the hour- seems to work fairly well, its a 4km tunnel so it only takes a  few minutes at 25mph , the scariest bit is that its wet in there, you end up driving on the railway tracks because there isnt room for a separate car lane. I didnt get many photos because to be honest I had enough to contend with driving in a narrow rock tunnel on slippery railway tracks !

Whittier is truly end of the earth stuff, the whole place feels like the end of a cul de sac, enclosed one side by Mt Mackintosh and the other side by mountains with a few passes through to Prince WIlliam Sound, it just feels enclosed and end of the worldish.- oh and it sells what must be the largest cinnamon rolls in the world as well.

There is an old US army base built in cold war days as a complete town under one roof for 1000 odd soldiers but i 1964 it was damaged by and earthquake and they moved out and left it . If the army had stayed longer, perhaps they might have funded and built another tunnel.!

Since I havent been North enough or into the wilds enough to see bears and moose, and the Salmon run is so small this year that I could have sat by the river all day and only seen a couple, I decided to visit the Alaska Wildlife centre instead, these are some of the animals I saw there

moose safely behind a fence, these things are mean

A rescued Eagle inside
and a wild one keeping it company outside

Everyone keeps telling me that the bears in Alaska are ok because they are black bears, means nothing to me but the ones above are brown bears and the one below is a black bear, if anyone knows the significance, let me know!

The Bison (Buffalo) are being bred to re introduce them, this herd is going to be released in 1025, at the moment they are being trained in "being buffalos"

Aww

The lynx and her sister were rescued as well, they seem to be very happy, any cat owner knows that face

South For a change, to Moose Pass Motel , I overshot a bit but drove back down to use the booking I already had
Another evening-when-it-should-be dark shot of the lake at Moose Pass