Alaska Road Trip: Seward and Whittier

Barb and I had been looking forward to this week for a very long time. We only had two planned visits with friends while in Alaska (ends up we had many more) and this week was going to be our second! Several weeks ago we had stopped and visited Lee and Trace in Glenallen and this week we got to see Bill and Kelly outside of Seward. We had met both of these fine couples our first year on the road in Florida at the 2015 RV Dreams Boondocking Rally. We caught up again with them last winter in Arizona and now we were seeing them in Alaska. Just goes to show you how geographically RV’ers can meet up pretty much anywhere!

Bill and Kelly are workamping at Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat for the summer. A cool place that offers both RV sites as well as cabins. We had been in contact with them and let them know we would be bringing plenty of halibut and salmon and planned to make them dinner our first night in. As luck would have it Steve and Linda were also going to be in the area and could stop by! We had met Steve and Linda for the first time on our way to Florida in the spring of 2015 as well.  Their son Zach was visiting as well, we all had a great dinner and caught up on our travels since we last saw each other.

Steve, Linda, Kelly, Bill and Zach along with Barb and I

The next day Bill and Kelly had to work so Barb and I drove the 20 miles to Seward and explored the town. This town rivals Skagway when it comes to picturesque scenery. Everywhere you looks were rugged snow covered peaks. On our way there, we took a detour to see Exit Glacier and so that Barb could get her National Parks Passport Book stamped! We toured the visitor center and took a short walk to see the actual glacier. Along the way, there were signs with years on them which showed where the glacier was at that point in time. It’s amazing how far the glacier receded in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. I overheard one woman say it was because of global warming. I wanted to ask her what was causing global warming between 1890 and 1930 in this remote unpopulated area.

We explored the shops in town, the brewery, the marina and even visited the Sea Life Center.
It is a great little town, if I had to knock it for one thing it is the parking. Very little free parking almost everywhere you went you had to pay $10/day for parking. We found free parking on the outer edge of town at the town park.

This Harbor Seal kept swimming by upside down

Puffin

This guys was lucky he was behind glass!

A helicopter? Someone has too much money!

We also found some great boondocking spots outside of town along Exit Glacier Road. There are spots up and down the road right along the river that could accommodate any size rig. Not only was it free but you could not beat the views!

Our site for the night with a view!

The following day Barb and Kelly had booked a dog sledding adventure with Seavey’s Ididaride Dogsled Tours. Luckily for them there were only two other people on their tour. Funny thing, one of them Barb said did not like dogs! For $69 each you got to have an informational session with one of the racers talking about training the dogs for the Iditarod race and the race itself, meet some of the dogs, go on a 2 mile dogcart ride, hold the puppies and get to try on their winter gear and sit in one of their dog sleds.

It was VERY noisy when all the dogs started barking at once!

Getting hooked up and ready to go

And we are off!

A race sled

Barb all ready for racing!

Both said it was a great time and well worth the money.

We then said goodbye to Bill and Kelly and headed off to Whittier. It was a pretty drive with several glaciers along the way.

This is by far the weirdest town we have been to so far. First, the only way to get there by road is to take a 2 ½ mile tunnel. This tunnel is only about 20’ wide and only allows one way traffic at a time. If you want to go into town you line up outside the tunnel (after paying $13 roundtrip fee) and on the bottom of each hour they allow traffic into the tunnel. On the top of each hour they allow outgoing traffic. Oh did I mention that it is also a railroad tunnel too? Not sure when they allow the trains through (I think it is at night). Talk about getting the most out of a tunnel!

The Whittier Tunnel

Inside the tunnel

The drive in was actually pretty cool, we have never been in a tunnel that long. Exiting the tunnel we drove into town, next thing we knew we were on the other side of town at the ferry terminal. I am guessing from the end of the tunnel to the end of town was maybe 2 miles. We hit the end of town, turned around, looked at each other and said this is it? This is the town? Yup that was the town.
But wait it gets weirder! There are approximately 240 fulltime residents in Whittier and we did not see one house. Where do all these people live? Well most of them live in an old military building now renovated into housing. Over 2/3rds of the residents live in this building which is also home to the City Offices and Police Department. The remainder of the residents live in another military building.

The main housing unit

They have a beautiful marina

There is room for expansion however as there is another shell of a military building near the other one. As Kelly recently said, you could film a Walking Dead episode in that building!
A cute town, a scenic town, a quiet town, but definitely a weird town in our opinion.

Next up more fishing adventures as we return once again to the Homer/Ninilchik area to see our friends Rich and Susan and see how those Kenai River Reds are running!