About 50 miles southeast of Anchorage, near the end of Turnagain Arm, is the beginning of glacier-carved Portage Valley. We camped there for several days in the Williwaw Campground, and I still think of it as one of the most beautiful places I've camped. The mountains that line the valley have numerous hanging glaciers, each of which creates one or more waterfalls due to melting. Incidentally, williwaw is a word used in many languages as a name for cold, violent wind. It was used here because the valley does experience winds in excess of 100 mph...fortunately not while we were there.
A few miles past our campground is Portage Lake, formed by the melt water of Portage Glacier. The gorgeous blue lake is accented with icebergs that have calved from the glacier and float idly around the lake as they gradually melt. The boat ride we took on the lake to the glacier itself was one of our favorite tours of the trip. The captain took us slowly by the face of the glacier, not once, but twice so we could be sure to get photos.
Just past the lake is a tunnel through the mountain, built by the Army to allow access to its base on the other side. The base was located on a bay off of Prince William Sound so troops could be brought in by ship. A spur track off the Alaska Railroad gave them a way to move into the interior. Once the base was closed in the early 1960s, enterprising people started moving into the vacated quarters. The village of Whittier was thus formed and today its roughly 200 residents all live in condos originally used as homes for military families. Whittier is another of Alaska's "quirky" towns, but is also in an incredibly beautiful location. I've borrowed a photo from their web site to show the entire town. Incidentally, the tunnel is so narrow only one car can go through at a time. The first half of each hour is for one direction, the second half hour for the opposite direction. Twice a day, the train takes precedence.
Whittier is a destination for cruise ships and the Alaska ferry system. Passengers can then take the railroad to Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks, etc.
One night we paid a visit to an area in the valley known as Moose Flats. Naturally, I had hopes of seeing moose there. While there were none to be seen, we did enjoy the beauty of the place and appreciated the light available near midnight. Note the remains of a house destroyed by the 1964 earthquake.
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