Port of Call Information

Port of Call Information

College Fjord, Alaska


Average Yearly High Temperature in Fahrenheit (&degF)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
-5 0 15 30 50 60 65 55 50 25 5 0

Overview

College Fjord is a fjord located in the northern sector of Prince William Sound in the U.S. state of Alaska. The fjord contains five tidewater glaciers (glaciers that terminate in water), five large valley glaciers, and dozens of smaller glaciers, most named after renowned East Coast colleges (women's colleges for the NW side, and men's colleges for the SE side). College Fjord was discovered in 1899 during the Harriman Expedition, at which time the glaciers were named. The expedition included a Harvard and an Amherst professor, and they named many of the glaciers after elite colleges.

Things to Do

Imagine relaxing and watching this giant College fjord slowly advancing, calving literally tons of ice into the fjord each day. These glaciers parade down, some of them 3,700 feet to the mile, from the steep mountains. No place else is there such a density of tidal glaciers.

There are often harbor seals hauled out on the ice floes in front of Harvard glacier throughout the summer. It’s also not unusual to see large rafts of sea otters together, grooming their luxuriously dense fur, slipping beneath the surface to dine on crab, or simply floating with their babies nestled on their chests watching with curiosity as we pass by.

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