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Culross Passage is an 11-mile sheltered route linking Port Wells and Port Nellie Juan, avoiding the need to round Culross Island. The passage, known for its calm water, is commonly plied by fishing boats and other small craft including kayakers and jet skies. A series of Pleistocene-carved bays and coves offers plentiful exploring, anchoring, and camping options.
In late spring and throughout summer, Culross Passage, only 16 miles from Whittier, transitions into a popular local attraction. For small boat mariners and sea kayakers, Culross Passage has it all in a small, protected package.
In Upper Culross Passage, good anchorage is available in either Carrs Cove or Culross Cove. Typically, commercial fishing boats and larger vessels moor near the head of Culross Cove, which can be windy but with limited wave action. Local boaters favor dropping anchor in Carrs Cove, which is semi shielded from easterly winds and boat wakes by two wooded islands guarding the cove's slender entrance. Kayakers use water taxi drop-off locations at either 16 or 18-mile beach, which are hardened camp sites in the upper passage.
Near the passage's conspicuous mid-way point, Culross Junction diagonally intersects with entrances to both Goose Bay and Long Bay. Mariners can securely anchor near the head of either bay, although, for large deep-draft vessels, low tides can play a factor when entering Goose Bay's half-mile-long entrance channel. A Forest Service Public Use Cabin hides among Spruce trees on the east shore of Goose Bay. Advance Online reservations are required. Long Bay's campsite CS_3-29 is the main camping area in Culross Junction.
In Lower Culross Passage, scenic Picturesque Cove is etched into the lower passage's western shore, while Applegate Island, Applegate Channel, and Applegate Spit occupy the lower passage's eastern entrance point. Both Picturesque Cove and Applegate Channel are fair weather anchorages with very reliable camping beaches for kayakers, especially the Applegate Spit area: with an excellent, well protected water taxi drop-off and pick-up location. (See guide for details).
First time visitors to Culross Passage need to be aware that the passage is partially obstructed by three very navigable, but narrow constrictions. Each of the bottleneck areas is detailed in the guidebook's Culross Passage section. Careful observation and use of navigation equipment are especially important, as navigational accuracy is required. The tidal currents in the upper and lower most bottlenecks can be both placid and swirly, typically amplified by opposing winds and currents especially during spring tide events. Kayakers and mariners should consult their tide table, and those with underpowered watercraft may want to avoid going against peak current flow in the narrows.
An important hidden facet of Culross Passage is found at Culross Junction where the passage is crossed by a ghostly geological boundary: Contact Fault. This jagged seam, running from northeast to southwest, down the length of Goose Bay and along the southern ridge-line of Long Bay marks the literal meeting point of two landmasses reflecting different ages of the earth—the ancient, weathered rocks of the Valdez Group and the younger formations of the Orca Group.
During the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, Contact Fault shivered and ruptured, forever altering the Prince William Sound terrain. The remnants of that upheaval still haunt the sound's shoreline, where the land dropped significantly, drowning forests and leaving behind silvered "ghost trees" that stand as skeletal monuments to the power beneath your keel.
Learn more details about boating, kayaking, beach combing, and camping options in Culross Passage and the Western Sound by ordering Exploring Alaska's Western Prince William Sound, in paperback or Epub, at Amazon, Google Play or at Apple Books.