Meares Glacier Part 1

Up and into Valdez (the campground is a few miles away from the town). We checked in for our Stan Stephens Cruise and at 8.30am boarded. After freezing to death last week, I found a table inside and settled in for the day.

At 9 am we headed down the Valdez arm towards Meares glacier. On the journey we saw a humpback 🐋, porpoise 🐬, a black bear 🐻, sea otters 🦦 and birds. They gave us morning tea and lunch and as much coffee as we could drink.

Fortunately the ocean was calm and we had a good day. We spent about 30 minutes at the glacier before heading back to port. On the return journey there was a huge oil tanker coming in and we got up close to that. After the Exon Valdez disaster, there’s a requirement that each tanker is accompanied by tugs with spill equipment and that can stop a tanker almost instantly. The captain told us about the terminal at the end of the pipeline in Valdez. It looks pretty big and not very beautiful.Read more