Turnagain Arm – Whittier Excursion

We sure have been sleeping well on this trip. Other than a few of Laura’s “monkey mind” events we have slept very sound and much longer than usual. When we finally hit the road from the Black Bear Campground, which is three miles up the road towards Whittier past the Turnagain Arm. DR wanted to see the Turnagain Arm at high tide. So we drove the three miles back to the Turnagain Arm. This should have been 32 feet higher than it was at low tide when we were waiting in vain for the bore tide to come in. Sure enough the Moon, Sun, sea and gravity did not fail us. The Turnagain Arm was full from bank to bank.

Having accomplished our goal we turned around and headed for Whittier. We had not read much about Whittier and were kind of surprised when we got to the tunnel. DR had heard a passing mention of it in some Youtube vlog. The community of Whittier used to be accessible only by train or boat. Back in 2000 they began a project to convert the 2.5 mile train tunnel into a shared access tunnel so that vehicles could use the train tunnel and Whittier was thus connected to Alaska’s highway system. Instead of enlarging the size of the train tunnel to accomodate a road beside the tracks, they paved right over the tracks leaving just the rails usable, like you might find in many cities where cars share the roads with rail bound trolleys. I’m sure this drastically reduced the cost of the project. Now they let vehicles drive through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel when trains aren’t using it. They batch up the vehicles at each end of the tunnel and alternate their passage through the tunnel between vehicles going East to get to Whittier and those going West to leave Whittier. The 2.5 mile drive through the tunnel is a little eerie, especially when you see the tiny entrance at the bottom of this big mountain. There is a toll, we paid $13, to go to Whittier. We are pretty sure they are paying for the project and maintenance with the toll.

We liked Whittier. It is very small and cozy. We walked down and picked a fish & chips joint and were not disappointed. Our waitress, with what sounded like a Russian accent, said it was the busy season and she had worked 55 days straight.

When we left we didn’t have to wait in the staging area for the tunnel as we managed to arrive just as the tail end of the West bound traffic entered the tunnel and an attendant waved us straight into the tunnel.

What fun!!!