Prince William Sound is more beautiful than pictures can show. I was constantly lamenting on our Alaska trip that no videos or pictures I was capturing were doing it justice. Just about anywhere we were you could look in a full circle and be stunned by the beauty in every direction. It's hard to capture that with a camera. The other day I shared a side trip in which we took a small plane to Mt McKinley (Denali) base camp. Check it out here.
Now I'm starting at the beginning of the trip. We met up with our group which consisted of two other couples from Australia and two guides in Anchorage. We have stayed in touch with all of them and plan to visit the other two couples in Australia. Our two guides are still busy traveling the world and leading groups on expeditions from Japan to Utah. We drove from Anchorage to Prince William Sound to begin our kayaking. We needed to average about 16 miles a day or risk getting caught with the tides going out to sea. It sounded easy, but after three day of all day kayaking, we were indeed wore out. It was so worth it for the sites we saw though.
We stopped several times a day for snacks and lunch, but otherwise it was all day paddling every day. There were icebergs, seals and even one whale which I wasn't quick enough to photograph. All three couples shared double kayaks which were loaded down with all our supplies. We had tents, sleeping bags, food and cookware to haul.
Each evening we stopped and pitched our tents and started working on dinner. We had very strict instructions to keep us safe from bears. Our tents for sleeping were always well over 100 yards away from the kitchen tent where the food was stored and cooked. We were not wearing any deodorant, perfume, lotion, etc. Nothing with a scent could be used for fear of attracting the bears. We did have one large can of bear spray just in case.
Click on this photo to see a video for a laugh as Kimberly tries to get me to help paddle.
By the third day we had reached the glacier and it was an incredible site. At times it was a bit worrying as huge chucks of ice would calve and fall into the sea sending waves across our tiny kayaks. Even paddling by the icebergs could be concerning as you noticed they were so huge and also would occasionally just break up and flip over.
Our last campsite was probably the best for views. We were on an isolated beach with beautiful views in 360 degrees. Our tent was pitched under an eagles nest complete with baby eagles!
A bald eagle and nest with babies we camped under
Small seal we saw swimming around.
Our campsite the second night
This was our kitchen tent. We always pitched it away from the sleeping tents
Here's the Dlive video, it's 5 minutes of the highlights!
Hope you enjoyed another journey with us!