Is a visit to Whittier with RV a good use of time?

sue.t wrote:
The drive in or out of Whittier is most unique. The 2.5 mile long single-lane tunnel is an experience. There's no light at the end of the tunnel when you enter it.

Whittier is a scenic little spot. Well worth the visit.
http://yukonsights.ca/20100829_KingMtn-Whittier.html

Whittier harbour

Sue.T - many compliments on your photo journal of your trips. We live in Alaska, have a cabin in the King Mtn Area, our son's wedding was in McCarthy, we often fish out of Whittier etc etc. Your photos as a collection for anyone who wants to get a feel for the land are really quite amazing. Good job, I enjoyed them

Best bet if you're towing a TT or FW or in a Class A towing a little guy, is to camp in Portage campground and day trip to Whittier (and Alyeska).

It can be amazingly gorgeous or miserably drizzly.

As several others said, the tunnel portion is almost worth the drive itself. It's one way at a time and flip flops every half hour I believe.

Unfortunately the best glacier viewing is going to be from a boat, so take a day excursion for that as well if you can.

Whittier is a great place to visit and (IMNSHO) worth a day trip....catch it on a good day and it is a spectacular spot.

If you want to see glaciers, don't expect to see them on the Valdez-Whittier ferry. Take a day excursion out of Valdez or Whittier specifically for the glacier sights.....in my view, you have more/better options out of Valdez, but that's largely because I like Valdez as well.

The Portage Glacier is a freshwater glacier that one used to be able to walk to from the road (long before the current B-B visitor center) but has now receded to the point of needing a boat to get to it.

As Joe mentioned, Whittier weather is often different from either the other side of the mountains (Portage) or the other side of the water (Valdez).

Personally, my favorite time to visit Whittier is in the late fall (early - mid October); admittedly, many of the services are shut down and it is unlikely to get sunny days, but the combination of saltwater, mountains, and in-your-face weather is a great way to remember that this is Alaska!

The drive in or out of Whittier is most unique. The 2.5 mile long single-lane tunnel is an experience. There's no light at the end of the tunnel when you enter it.

Whittier is a scenic little spot. Well worth the visit.
http://yukonsights.ca/20100829_KingMtn-Whittier.html

Whittier harbour

We enjoyed our stay in the area. You can read about it and see some of the photos we took while there on our blog. We stayed at the National Forest Service Willawaw Campground and found it very nice.

The ferry from Valdez to Whittier does pass by College Fjord, but I believe that the fjord's glaciers are no longer visible from the ferry (they were in the 1970s). So, if you want to see the College Fjord glaciers, you have to take a day cruise from Valdez. Many who have taken both say it is better than the Kenai Fjords NP boat tours from Seward. Others will have to chime in on that because I have only taken the Kenai Fjords tour--three times over 20 years--and not the Valdez tour.

As suggested earlier, there are day-long glacier tours from Whittier as well. However, the well-publicized Portage Glacier tour is NOT a tidewater glacier tour in Prince William Sound. It is a small cruise boat on Portage Lake to see a small mountain glacier, which BTW has massively receded since I first visited it in 1972.

Wherever you decide to do a glacier boat tour, be sure to buy the 2015 Great Alaska Toursaver coupon book before you go. You will save the cost of the Alaska coupon book on just one person's glacier tour. Then all the other things you can use it for really are 2 for 1. They are still $99.99 and you can order one on-line at Toursaver or buy them at Fred Meyer, Safeway, and many other stores in Alaska.

While Whittier may not be considered to be a destination location to most it is worth a day trip to me. The Camping in the Portage area is some of the best in the lower Anchorage bowl area.

Whittier is, I believe the farthest north, ice free US port for shipping. It was developed during WWII, same time frame as the building of the Alaska Hwy by the US military as a way to get troops into Alaska, all year around. So it is a bit of a strange place due to all these factors. The military built two huge building in Whittierr, one is now the Begich Towers and the other sets abandoned. At the time they were built they were the largest building in Alaska. The Begich building was bult mainly as an apartment build and that is what it is still used for. It is 14 stories tall, has almost 200 apartments to house the just leas than 200 year around residents. The local school is next door and is connected to the apartment building by a tunnel so the students don't have to go outside to get to school or back home

Whittier weather is often very different from that in Portage. Portage may be sunny and warm and Whittier will be low clouds and rain. The military built a rail road tunnl from Whittier to Portage where it connected to the Alaska Railroad which the military also owned and operated at the time.

I have been to Whittier, probably half a dozen times over the years. my wife and I like to ride our motorcycle, from Nenana where we lived for 13 years over to Delta, south to Valdez and catch the ferry over to Whittier. At that time we would have to put the bike on a flat bed rail car and ride with it through the tunnel to be off loaded in Portage, where we could go south to the Kenai or north to head back home.

Now days you can drive vehicles through the train tunnel. Directions alternate every 30 minutes as I remember and trains still have priority use. Just the drive through the tunnel is a fun experience for us. In Whittier, there is a large small boat harbor, several day long boat tours around the area, good places to eat, etc. It is a cruise ship docking town, but the people are mainly getting off the cruise ships and onto buses or trains to head to Anchorage. A large majority of all ocean freight headed into main land Alaska enters through the Port of Valdez. The rail barges out of the Seattle area and Prince Rupert load and unload here.

While Whittier is not somewhere we go every trip, for someone that has never been there, to me it would be worth a days time, to do the trip. Would just depend on how tight your time schedule was at the time.

On the way to Seward from Anchorage, you will pass Portage Glacier.
It is much easier to get to Whittier from Seward than it is to take a boat from Valdez.
You can also take Glacier Cruises from Whittier.

I really don't understand your question so I hope the above information helps.

Portage Valley RV Park 2013 was the best park we were in and had a common covered fire pit and BBQ's, with a great manager. Good place to stop and you can see the sights along the way to Whittier and experience the unique tunnel.

Whittier itself was interesting and nice scenery. Don't know that I would make a second visit. But a water trip is another matter as you're in the beauty of SE AK.