BLOG 18 - Alaska in the Rain / Rainy Alaska

After Valdez had already been quite rainy, the wet weather stayed with us.

First, the 'Alaska Marine Highway' ferry takes us through the Prince William Sound to Whittier, a small town that originally was built as a military settlement. The entire town and its infrastructure were concentrated in two high-rise complexes, the Buckner Building being abandoned in 1966 and has since fallen into disrepair, while the newer Begich Tower has been refurbished and is still home to the majority of today’s Whittier's 255 residents and infrastructure, hence the nickname 'City under one roof'.

Another curiosity of Whittier is the approximately 4 km long Anton Anderson Tunnel, through which the only access road runs. Originally built in 1943 at the same time as the Buckner Building as a pure, single track rail tunnel, it was converted in 2000 for combined rail and road traffic. Trains always have priority and there are traffic lights for cars. When driving through, which feels quite odd, one always hopes that the approaching light is the end of the tunnel and not an oncoming train.

We have to reduce our program for Seward due to the weather, we cancel the planned boat trip to the glaciers of the Kenai Fjord National Park, the visit to the Alaska Sealife Center, which is absolutely worth seeing, keeps us dry. The actually very nice campsite right by the sea cannot really console us about the weather situation, after all we can admire cruise ships and “iron” kite surfers from our small, cozy “snail shell” from the dry and warm.

The final drive towards Anchorage allows us only a few views of the beautiful landscape, the Portage Glacier and the Turnagain Inlet are covered in clouds and fog. In Anchorage we pack our suitcases on a city campsite – accompanied by loud horn signals from the Alaska Railroad, which also runs quite frequently at night and passes right by the site.

The next day, with returning our truck camper to 'GoNorth' RV rental company, our journey of almost 7000 km from Seattle to Anchorage ends, but not our 'North to Alaska' journey - the grizzly bears on Kodiak Island are still waiting for us.