Kenai’s closest town is Seward, AK. Seward is about 125 miles south of Anchorage on the Alaska route 1 then to route 9 but basically it is the same road. I flew into Anchorage last evening from an original departure city of Baltimore for a friends wedding. The wedding was great and the flight to Anchorage was LONG. The flight from Dallas to Anchorage was delayed a few times, a gate/terminal change, and delay while on the tarmac as there was congestion. The delays meant I did not arrive into Anchorage until almost 10pm and by the time I got a car and departed I was tired. The sun was up and it was strange that the stores were all closed but I did not realize the time based on the sun but then I knew why they were all closed. I headed south to Seward and after about 45 minutes decided that I needed to get some rest. A rest stop, strong word, was open and a spot a pot was in the parking area. I said why not. The Rav4 was going to be my resting place for the evening. The spot also was next to a river. I got out and went into the back to change my clothes and boy did the mosquitos come around and were everywhere! Naked and mosquitos everywhere is not what I was hoping for but I needed to change clothes and thankfully not too many bites. I started the night with the drivers seat leaned back the entire way but that was not great sleeping so I decided to change spots. The backseat was broken down into 1/3 vs 2/3 and the 2/3 was the passenger side so I put it down and used my backpack for a pillow. I also used the screen for the back of the Rav4 as a blocker of the sun since it was up late in the night and early in the morning. Arrival into Seward was about 0800 and I had to pay to park but enjoyed the day exploring the town. Note: the town of Seward has many campgrounds that are right in town and it maybe something that I try again when I have an open day here in Alaska.
Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise – I chose this 3.5 hour cruise from Major Marine Tours as the first tour in the park as the other cruise I am going to go on is an 8 hour tour so this made sense to me. The boat is called Glacier Express and the Captain was Marcella. Marcella did a great job in telling us about the area we were passing through and looking to see wildlife. I think she has a good network of others in the area who helped her find animals but also she has a crew doing the same. The boat has a bar and I was good only having 1 beer during the trip. Marcella told us about Godwin glacier, the first we came to, had only 150 years ago been down to the water but now has receded a great deal. She also showed us the Seward prison which houses some bad guys. We saw a few bald eagles, many Stellar sea lions, a mamma and calf humpback whales, two mountain goats, an otter and a bunch of Puffin both types. She pointed out a WWII bunker that was used to shine a light across the harbor to search for Japanese ships as the Japanese had taken control of an island in Alaska, and a second bunker which you could walk to if you wanted to do 20 miles. There were many glaciers we saw and even saw some glacial ice in the water but it was not an iceberg as an iceberg needs to be above the water more than 12 feet, if I recall correctly. We went to places like Thumb Cove, Humpy Cove and Agnes Cove. At Agnes the humpback whales were seen. Bear Glacier was cool and we saw icebergs that had fallen off of Bear Glacier but we did not get close to those only the small one that was just glacial ice. Bear Glacier is a Piedmont/valley glacier as it ends in freshwater lake and not the ocean and is the largest glacier in Kenai Fjords at 12 miles long. The second type of glacier is a tidewater glacier and they end at the ocean. There was a beach which was created by a glacier. Everybody knows that glaciers are big bulldozers pushing everything in front of it down and when they recede they leave the dirt and rocks. This particular dirt and rocks was left in Resurrection Bay causing the trees to put its roots into salt water and die. These trees look like regular tees without leaves and are sometimes called “toothpick” trees.
Northwestern Fjord Cruise – This cruise started at dinner last evening when I met my Captain Gary. He and I had a nice conversation about Seward, and life during both of our meal times. Today, Gary got us on the boat and we were able to leave 5 minutes early as everyone was on the boat so off we went. On our way to Northwestern Fjord in Resurrection Bay our Captain Gary spotted a pod of Orca whales that are transient orcas. Transient whales eat marine mammals and have the largest pods of the 3 types of orcas. The other two types are offshore and they have the smallest pods, while residents stay in the same area but they are only in the same area at the same time each year. We spent an hour watching the 40 plus whales in the transient pod surface. Gary then said we needed to head to the glacier but on the way we saw 3 humpback whales in a similar area that I saw the 2 yesterday. After viewing for a short time we then departed toward to glacier once again. On the way we passed a point in the journey that there was a bit of a glacier remain island, in that when the glacier receded it left the dirt and rocks it had pushed. The island made the channel shallow and in the middle of the channel was a hump in the island and would be a place for a boat to run aground if not knowing the channel. Note: the channel has only been mapped twice so if you are the captain be aware. Next up on our list of fun stuff was the glacier but on the way Gary spotted a bald eagle sitting high atop a spruce tree. Next up was the glacier, but we did spot a group of about 25 otters just hanging out so we stopped and watched them for a bit. Now we made the journey to the glacier and saw over 80 sea lions, and bunches of glacier ice in the water. It was kinda weird to hear the ice hitting the hull of the boat. The glacier when it looses some ice is called calving and when this happens it sounds like thunder. We were able to see a big calving not in the size of the ice that broke off, like an iceberg, but the amount. It started at the top of the glacier and then it went to a mid section and I could tell it was not done as it was moving slowly, almost like an avalanche. The calving then started towards the water and it rained down ice into the water for over 4 minutes. All of this ice going into the water caused a bit of a wave or two coming our way. The glacier was enormous in size as when we were two miles out it looked big but then we spotted a 60 foot boat and that was small. The width of the glacier is over 1/2 mile! We moved forward and took a closer look at the sea lions just hanging out on the floating ice not seeming to notice us or the new ice on the water. Our next stop was an additional glacier but this one looked more like a mountain as it was dirty, and not in a good way. The glacier also had many boulders in it along the way. Gary then stopped at a fjord full of waterfalls. The fjord was over 400 feet high and there was over 10 waterfalls. Next we went to a spot where the puffins (horned and tufted) nested. We were in luck as there was a bunch of puffins in this cove. Puffins dive for their food and when the dive they use their wings like they are flying to go deeper into the water. Their wings used for diving means they don’t fly well but we were able to see many of the puffin flying. They don’t go too high in the air but just above the water usually however today I saw one at about 15 feet in the air. Now we are on our way back to the dock but had to stop and see a group of humpback whales. These whales were feeding and using the trumpet method. That is when they are in a circle and one makes noise causing the “dinner” to rise up and into the group. The group will then come out of the water with their mouths open eating their “dinner.” The group then did some diving and swimming but we had to go on our way as we needed to dock. I have to say that the group from Major Marine did a wonderful job with the tour.
Here are a few links to videos taken while on the boat ride that are on my YouTube channel. Northwestern Glacier calving Whales bubble netting Water fall on the Northwest glacier tour Note: by clicking on the links above it will open a new tab in your browser
fckn amazing! be careful!!
Always I try to be careful but sometimes it does not happen. Stay strong.