Woke up this morning to a beautiful day. We had a boat cruise planned and so had time for a leisurely breakfast and some internet time. Note: this was not spent posting and updating the blogs! We decided that I was healthy enough to camp out another night and so checked into the park again for another night.

Now the Stan Stephens Glacier and Wildlife cruises www.stanstephenscruises.com, sounded like a bit of a glitzy tourist trap and some of the reviews warned of this. On the bus to the boat and while awaiting boarding it really seemed like it was going to be one of those touristy trips that were too expensive to be worth the travel.

The passengers travelling with us covered a wide range from lower 48 RVers to Antipodean travellers. The trip as it turned out was good value. The tour of the Valdez harbour and the commentary were excellent, explanations of why things were as they were and confirmation details I had read elsewhere.

The boat trip through the harbour let us see the seals and otters before the boat turned to make its way toward the Columbia Glacier. They served a clam chowder lunch bowl and offered free tea and coffee so this with the snacks we had taken meant we didn't go hungry. On the way into the glacier we went past a series of rock outcrops inhabited by seals, who were active and noisy.

We then entered the Columbia Bay there was evidence of glacier carving everywhere and the captain was warning that this may mean that we will not get too close to the glacier. We had already read about this in the online reviews that had warned about paying all this money and not getting to the glacier.

As luck and tides would have it we were able to get all the way in and quite close to the glacier, which provided the mandatory carving and more. It was truly a great experience and well worth the journey. After a fair while travelling along the face of the glacier it was time to depart, so back out and toward Valdez.

Note: if you do not travel to see this glacier soon it will have split into two glaciers still impressive but the receding nature will mean that there is a small land mass between the current glaciers.

The journey back to Valdez took us past a Puffin rookery these are amazing birds to see in the wild, we also got to spot eagles in the trees and then we were back into the main harbour and on land. We decided to forego the bus trip back to the park and walked the journey. There was a fishing competition weigh-in as we were walking and the size of the fish were amazing.

On arrival back in the RV park we decided to finish the salmon, with another lot of chips and settle in for the night.

Animals Spotted: Puffins, cranes, terns,eagles, sea otters, Steller sea lions, harbour seals, porpoises and seagulls.