Rafting Spencer Glacier
and the Placer River
in Alaska
"No roads lead to Spencer Glacier. Fortunately, the Alaska Railway does," is how the brochure reads. This excursion was sponsored by The Alaska Railroad and began with the train ride from Anchorage to the quaint town of Whittier, where we had 30 minutes to see the town. For decades, no highway went to Whittier, so they paved the one lane railroad tunnel, and every 30 minutes the tunnel is open for ten minutes to one-way car traffic (alternating direction every half hour.) We then reboarded the train and traveled to the Portage area where we had a short bus ride to the raft launch.
After a nice picnic lunch, we began rafting towards Spencer Glacier through nearly frozen water and passing many icebergs. This photo shows the glacier in the background as we work our way around the many ice floes.
This photo demonstrates our proximity to the icebergs. We could not approach the glacier, for fear that a new iceberg forcefully breaking off the glacier edge (calving) would swamp us with a large wave. Seeing the beauty of the icebergs from so close, especially when the deep blue color was evident, made the $159 (2004 price) worth it!
After leaving the lake, we floated the Placer River, enjoying the scenery and solitude as we floated the miles back to the train. There were a few bouncing rapids to add a little excitement, but the train trip and experiencing the glacier and icebergs was the big draw of this trip.