Cruises from College Fjord

College Fjord is a spectacular collection of glaciers located in the northern region of Prince William Sound, located in the Gulf of Alaska. Prince William Sound lies at the southern end of the state of Alaska. A sound is an ocean conduit, larger than a bay, placed between two landmasses (Whoever knew that the word sound had a geographical meaning too!).

College Fjord, a 20-mile long fjord (a narrow inlet created by glacial activity) is formed by sixteen breathtaking glaciers and has an intriguing history. It was discovered in 1899 by the Harriman expedition, led by the railroad magnate, Edward Harriman, which was looking for an all-American route to the Klondike gold fields located partly in the US and partly in Canada. The expedition included a Harvard and an Amherst professor. Together on a whim they decided to name the glaciers after the elite East coast colleges. So there are glaciers named Harvard, Amherst, Vassar, Wellesley, Williams and Yale, the most striking of them, which is not surprising, is Harvard, located just at the mouth of the fjord.

On the northwest side of the fjord the glaciers were named after women’s colleges like Barnard, Smith, Vassar and Wellesley and on the southwest side they were named after men’s colleges like Dartmouth, Amherst, Yale and Harvard. Taking the rivalry among the Ivy League colleges to the extreme, the professors were reportedly tickled at leaving out Princeton in this naming ceremony. The Harriman expedition did not find the gold fields, but they did find this enormous ice field of glaciers, which has today become a must on the itineraries of cruise ships.

The landscape is awe-inspiring, once again confirming the fact that man is just a tiny speck compared to the wonders of nature. Tourists on the cruise liners can see six glaciers jutting out of the sea reaching heights up to almost 10,000 feet.
The best time to visit College Fjord is from June to August since in the winter months the temperatures are well below freezing. Even in summer while visiting College Fjord, it is advisable not to wear traditional summer clothes as the temperatures stay between 55-65 degrees F.

College Fjord attracts wild life enthusiasts who along with the cruise passengers will be able to see an abundance of sea mammals on the shore. Sea otters will often be seen lounging in the sun with their babies clinging to their chest. You may also see harbour seals, porpoises, Beluga whales and sometimes even Orcas in the waters of Prince William Sound.

It is said that the glaciers in Alaska have shrunk by more than 50 percent over the last 100 years. In the last few months cruise liners have come within close distance of the Harvard glacier and found that it is also shedding its building material. While there is no immediate danger of them disappearing you might want to hurry that trip to Alaska, the land of 100,000 glaciers!