The Land of the Midnight Sun
As we entered Collage Fjord the sun finally came out. The gray, dreary weather that had been following us since we boarded the ship finally cleared. Without the heavy, gray cloud cover we began to see why this land is known as the land of the midnight sun. Even though we were on an early spring cruise sunset at this latitude was still around 10:30 pm.
What is College Fjord?
Believe it or not, College Fjord was even more spectacular than Glacier Bay. Maybe it was because we had sunlight and blue sky but I think it had more to do with the proximity of the glaciers. There are a lot of them here and the Fjord is more narrow than Glacier Bay. All of the glaciers here are named after a college. This is just a partial list of the glaciers that line the Fjord.
- Amherst Glacier
- Barnard Glacier
- Bryn Mawr Glacier
- Crescent Glacier (Alaska)
- Downer Glacier
- Harvard Glacier
- Holyoke Glacier
- Smith Glacier (Alaska)
- Vassar Glacier
- Wellesley Glacier
- Williams Glacier
- Yale Glacier
The Wildlife of College Fjord
There was a Naturalist on board for the cruise through College Fjord. We’d just entered the mouth of the Fjord when they announced that we could see mountain goats on the mountain sides. Although I looked like crazy I couldn’t see anything that I could say for sure were animals of any kind. We kept watch for marine mammals like whales and porpoises but only one unidentified animal showed it’s head.
Whittier just ahead
After College Fjord we cruised into Whittier arriving in the morning. As soon as we finished breakfast we were off loaded. Just look at all that snow! Some of our luggage was taken to the Captain Cook hotel in Anchorage to await our return. A smaller bag of necessities for our 3 days in Denali went with us to the train. The cruise portion of our trip was over.