Tour Summary

Columbia Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in Prince William Sound. Since the early 1980’s it has been retreating catastrophically from the terminal moraine, leaving a 12 mile long field of floating ice in front of it.
On this kayak day tour, you will get dropped off close to the moraine of the glacier to go sea kayaking into the icefield with your guide.
After a lunch break and a short hike on the glaciers’ moraine,  you will continue exploring the coastline by kayak. Occasionally the icebergs flush out of the bay and you are able to get closer to the mind-blowing face!
The water taxi will bring you back to Valdez after roughly 5 hours of activity.

It is important to note that you do not actually get near the face of the Columbia Glacier in your kayak. The face is typically a very windy place without much protection or options for beach landings, whereas the outer terminal moraine forming the bank between the Columbia and Heather Bays continues to be a calmer, more protected area that is prime for viewing icebergs that have drifted out to this shoal and stacked up.

Schedule
The tour starts at 8am at the office and usually returns to town around 6pm.
The first hour will  be outfitting and paddle talk. Then you take the boat ride to Columbia Bay (hour 2-4.5)
After paddling amongst the ice, there will be a lunch break ( 30 minutes), followed by more paddle driven exploration (1.5 hours) followed by the boat ride back to town ( 2 hours)