If you want to drive to or from Whittier, you have to drive your car onto a train which goes through tunnels. That is the gateway from Turnagain Arm (an arm of Cook Inlet) to Prince William Sound. There is really not much to do in Whittier - it used to be a military base, and later they converted some of the barracks to a fish processing plant. There are spectacular views, a lot of wildlife, and plenty of hiking for the adventurous. But the big draw to Whittier is the ferry boat to Valdez: on tat ferry, you will pass by the Columbia Glacier, which, when it calves, sends pieces of ice as big as 3 football fields plunging off the face of the glacier into Prince William Sound. You will see rich wildlife, and it will be a memory of a lifetime.