After a lovely breakfast at the Highland Glen with the best waffles I have tasted we headed off to the Shopping Mall and the Walmart superstore for a little retail therapy.
We had seen early morning television coverage of a bush fire affecting a forest area close to a Highway so I thought I ought to see where it was - it was near McHugh on Highway 1 just the way we had to go to Whittier. We could see the smoke rising over the hills from the shopping mall so hoped it would not affect us too much! Wrong thought!
We set off around 12 noon on the old highway 1 but soon had to join the queue of traffic heading east - they were only letting one lane through the burning zone, at once in approximately 15 minute bursts each way - it took us 2 hours to get to the other side where we saw an enormous queue going the other way - towards Anchorage.
We stopped for a refreshing coffee and a doughnut near Girdwood -and emerged from the car into a smokey atmosphere.
The wind was a strong easterly so you could smell the smoke in the air and see it hanging over the mountains.
We then continued on to be first in line for the 3.30 tunnel opening into Whittier (today's photo).
Whittier was a strategic military base at the end of WW 2 and during the Cold War - it remains ice free and strategically well placed. Consequently to facilitate access the military created a 5 mile train tunnel,the longest in the USA, through the mountain which is now opened to allow vehicles through on the 30 min to Whittier and on the hour out of Whittier - which is spectacularly placed at the bottom of Prince William Sound
We settled into our room at the 'Inn at Whittier' then went to explore this small rustic town - the main accommodation is old army accommodation which locals live in - the small harbour is full of boats - both commercial and pleasure -
besides fishing there is a container port, ferries and day trip vessels. Around the edge of the harbour there are a miscellany of rustic food and gift outlets.
After an hours walk we returned for dinner, which we ate at our hotel', while looking over Prince William Sound