This cruise has its own natural greeting party

VALDEZ, Alaska — The gang's all here — humpback whales, killer whales, minke whales, sea otters, sea lions, porpoises and harbor seals, bald eagles and black bears.

They're on the itinerary of one of Alaska's best nature-cruise expeditions around Prince William Sound, with Valdez-based Stan Stephens Cruises.

It's almost as if the animals perform on cue for Capt. Stan Stephens and his all-Alaskan crews. Humpback whales surface so close to the tour vessels, they almost blow in passengers' ears. And sea otters, with teddy-bear faces, backfloat with otter youngsters riding on their tummies like hitchhikers.

Then, just as you wish you had packed more film and memory cards for your cameras, the boats steer a course through mazes of icebergs toward massive glaciers flowing out of mountains 10,000 feet high.

Prince William Sound, with more than 2,700 miles of coastline, cradles a wilderness of emerald fjords, ancient forests and sheltered hideaways for boaters. It is vast — five times larger than Puget Sound, 15 times the size of San Francisco Bay.

And yet it is only 60 miles from Anchorage, Alaska's largest city.

This is Stan Stephens' realm. Stephens, 77, and his family have been showing Prince William Sound to visitors since 1971.

Stephens remembers the night of March 24, 1989, when the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled more than 10 million gallons of crude oil only a few miles from Valdez. Stephens was one of the first to reach Bligh Reef, the accident scene.

"It was a beautiful, clear night with calm, flat seas," he recalls. "It shouldn't have happened. It was a terrible tragedy."

That is the introduction to nature cruises aboard the Valdez Spirit, flagship of the Stephens' fleet.

Valdez Spirit exits its home harbor, just across the channel from the tanker terminal where oil from the Prudhoe Bay-Valdez pipeline is loaded aboard southbound tankers. This is where the ill-fated Exxon Valdez departed. Just down the Valdez Arm fjord is Bligh Reef, a rocky outcrop, identified now only by a small, green navigation marker.

"Tanker safety here is better today," Stephens tells travelers. "But I still worry."

A raft of sea otters comes into view on the port side of the vessel, more than a dozen drifting on their backs. Stephens stops the engines so passengers can take photographs.

"We're in no hurry," he says.

He never is. This is billed as a nine-hour cruise. But Stephens will tarry any time there is a wildlife sighting.

"Eagles!" shouts a passenger.

A trio of bald eagles is poised atop tall hemlock trees, waiting to swoop down on a new run of pink salmon. Their white heads are like golf balls in the distance.

There's action over at Buoy 9.

(Navigation buoys serve as handy sun decks for sea lions in these waters.)

A quintet of Steller sea lions is crowded aboard the buoy for a snooze. And the quarter-ton tenants don't welcome guests.

Another sea lion is circling the buoy, trying several times to climb onto the platform. No way. Each attempt is thwarted by the cranky occupants. They bark and growl menacingly. Finally, the weary visitor gives up and swims away.

Valdez Spirit turns toward Columbia Glacier. Stephens steers a cautious slalom course through patches of ice tossed into the sea by the giant glacier. Some of the ice slabs are as big as buses and hide two-thirds or more of their mass under water.

The 82-foot vessel is dwarfed by the 250-foot-high face of the glacier. Columbia is making a hasty retreat toward the Chugach Mountains, falling back 9 miles in the past 22 years. And as it retreats, the glacier sheds ice in a process known as calving. It's a heart-pounding experience to watch shards of ice as tall as office buildings fall into Prince William Sound with a crash like thunder.

Susan Nielsen, the Spirit's crew chief, and her staff were ready to serve lunch when Stephens announced: "We have a humpback whale!"

Passengers hurried outside to see the whale. It dived, surfaced and dived again, saluting the audience with a display of tail flukes dripping with sea water.

"We'll just delay lunch for awhile," Nielsen says. "This happens a lot."

We are not alone on Prince William Sound. Several purse-seine vessels from Valdez are casting their nets for salmon.

Power skiffs dispatched from the seiners spread the nets in wide circles. After a few minutes, winches aboard the seiners close the nets and hoist them on deck. The eagles will dine well today.

"Bear!"

A black bear is roaming the beach by a silvery waterfall. It's a scene for a telephoto lens.

Then a curious harbor seal raises its head. More sea otters. More eagles. ... It's a nonstop wildlife show.

We turn toward another glacier — Meares Glacier, 300 feet high and spreading more than a half-mile across its face. Unlike its Columbia Glacier neighbor, Meares is advancing.

It is 5 p.m., and Stephens is preparing to return to Valdez. The crew serves cups of chowder for a late-afternoon snack.

"Over there, there!" a passenger yells.

A humpback whale spouts just off the port bow. Then two more whales appear. Then another.

Stephens smiles.

"I think we'll just hang out here for awhile," he says.

Alaska-born Stanton H. Patty, a Vancouver, Wash., writer, is the retired assistant travel editor of The Seattle Times.

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If you go

Valdez

Where

Valdez is at the end of the Richardson Highway, about 300 miles from Anchorage and 360 miles from Fairbanks. Several tour companies feature Valdez on itineraries. The city of 4,100 is popular with RV travelers. Other transportation options include scheduled air service from Anchorage and travel aboard ferries of the Alaska Marine Highway from Whittier and other points in Prince William Sound.

Weather

High temperatures average 55.5 degrees in June, 60 in July and 54 in August. Visitors are advised to dress in layers with warm jackets or rain gear for outings on Prince William Sound.

Glacier trips

Stan Stephens Cruises: Two excursions are offered daily from mid-May to mid-September — a seven-hour nature cruise to Columbia Glacier, and a nine-hour tour that includes Columbia and Meares Glaciers. The Columbia Glacier cruise is $95 for adults, $47 for children ages 3-12. The Columbia-Meares tour is $130 for adults, $65 for children.

Reservations: Stan Stephens Cruises, 866-867-1297 (toll free) or 907-835-4731; www.stanstephenscruises.com.

Information

Valdez Convention & Visitors Bureau, 907-835-4636; www.valdezalaska.org.