1. Day Whittier: Travel from Anchorage via motorcoach to Whittier, along beautiful Turnagain Arm. Watch for the sure-footed Dall sheep that nibble grass on the steep cliffs along the scenic road. Whittier, Alaska is located at the northern end of glacier-lined Passage Canal in Prince William Sound, 65 miles southeast of Anchorage. This tiny, remote community was established as a strategic military facility during World War II. Whittier’s ice-free port has served various marine activities from freight transfers of sea-train barges heading to Southcentral Alaska to a fishing and tourism port. In 1941, the U.S. Congress appropriated $5 million to construct a 2.5 mile tunnel to penetrate the mountains to connect Whittier to Anchorage. This tunnel would be one of the largest in the world, and two years and two tunnels later, the first train arrived in Whittier on June 1, 1943, forever linking this Alaskan outpost by sea and land. By the year 2000, the tunnel began to serve both vehicles and the train. Two of the largest buildings in Alaska were also constructed in Whittier during the war, with the unique concept of housing all residents under one roof. To this day, most of the population of 185 lives in one of these tall buildings, and its tiny boat harbor remains the gateway to the pristine wonders of the beautiful Prince William Sound wilderness. Arrive in Whittier, where the crew welcomes you aboard the Spirit of Columbia. The ship departs for seldom-visited areas of Prince William Sound, starting with a visit to Blackstone Glacier in Blackstone Bay.


2. Day College Fjord: Wake up near the face of Harvard Glacier at the very end of College Fjord. Dozens of glaciers of all types pour from the mountains to the sea here. The most impressive sight you can hope to see is skyscraper-sized pinnacles of ice plunging from the glaciers into the water. Continue on to narrow Esther Passage, a waterway only small ships can navigate. Watch for orcas, sea otters, and bald eagles here; your Captain knows where the best sightings will be found. Explore the serene Eaglek Bay. In the summer of 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman, president of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Washington Academy of Sciences upon advice from his physician to take a sea voyage as an antidote to stress, funded a scientific expedition along the Alaskan coast. The two-month expedition, intended initially as a family vacation, eventually gathered an illustrious group of scientists, naturalists, writers, and artists, and combined scientific research with leisure activities. It was the Harriman Expedition party who named College Fjord as well as the glaciers that line it. The dozen or so glaciers lining this fjord were named for the Ivy League schools that members of the party attended. On the northwest side of the fjord, the glaciers were named after the women's colleges, such as Smith, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Wellesley, Barnard, and Holyoke. On the southeast side, the glaciers are named after men's colleges Harvard, Yale, Amherst, and Dartmouth. Some of these glaciers have retreated since the original Harriman Expedition, but not the largest of them, Harvard.  Harvard Glacier is 1-1/2 miles wide, approximately 225 feet high at its terminal face, stretches below the waterline up to about 120 feet, and reaches back to the Chugach Icefield nearly 24 miles away. This giant of College Fjord is slowly advancing, calving literally tons of ice into the fjord each day. These glaciers parade down from the steep mountains. Nowhere else is there such a density of tidal glaciers. There are often harbor seals hauled out on the ice floes in front of Harvard Glacier throughout the summer. It’s also not unusual to see large rafts of sea otters together, grooming their luxuriously dense fur, slipping beneath the surface to dine on crab, or simply floating with their babies nestled on their chests watching with curiosity as we pass by.


3. Day Chenega Bay Glacier: Narrow wilderness waterways – some just 200 feet wide – lead to Knight Island in the wild southwest corner of Prince William Sound. Knight Island, 25 miles long and two to nine miles wide, is located in the remote southwestern portion of Prince William Sound, 40 miles southeast of Whittier. Spectacular coves, inlets, and steep rocky cliffs surround the island, and the waterways of Knight Island Passage and Montague Straits support an extraordinary abundance of marine mammals including humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, harbor seals, and sea lions. In the early 1900's (1903-09) 42 mining claims were staked along most of Knight Island, but only two claims in Drier Bay and the Pandora Mine on Knight Island ever produced any copper ore, with its southern neighbor of Latouche Island producing the richest claims. Unsuccessful miners turned to fox farming and fishing on and around these remote islands; however, Knight Island has remained relatively uninhabited since the copper mining heyday. Unfortunately, all the islands in this southwestern portion of Prince William Sound were in the path of the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, with Knight Island being heavily affected. Today, the devastated ecosystem and wildlife habitat is recovering and it is difficult to notice any harm along the surface of this rugged and remote landscape. Winding Icy Bay leads to a spectacular glacier calving icebergs into salt water at the head of the fjord. The rest of the day is a sheer delight, as you indulge in leisurely exploration of islands with hardly a trace of human habitation.


4. Day Whittier: Visit a large kittiwake colony before continuing to Whittier for disembarkation. Transfer by motorcoach back to Anchorage