Kenai Fjords National Park

As I mentioned in my last post, we also visited the park using an alternative method of travel. We took a 6 hour cruise from Seward into the park. The cruise included salmon dinner. At about 2:30pm, we embarked along with about 80 other people on our cruise. We motored along at about 24 knots into a strong headwind as we left the area of Seward, heading out of Resurrection Bay. Not much time was spent outside as it was a bit cool in those conditions. We learned that during WWII, fortifications had been built in the cliffs at the entrance to the bay. They have been abandoned, but we could still see the pilings for the dock that had served the fortifications. We also learned that the entire town and port of Whittier, AK had been built as a top secret port in case Seward was damaged or captured (Seward was the only ice free port at the time). Now, this tour operation was indeed an operation. They had at least six tour boats, a couple of hotels, and a resort on Fox Island, near the entrance to Resurrection Bay. We stopped there to pick up dinner supplies and then headed back toward the park. We saw an amazing number of animals of all types. We saw Puffins, gulls, Stellar Sea Lions, Eagles, Humpback Whales, Dahl Porpoises, Eagles, Sea Otters, Harbor Seals, and much to Mikee's delight Orcas. She had told us that this was the one animal she really wanted to see. Lucky day I guess, as we actually saw many Orcas throughout the cruise. The captain was great about getting right in close to the animals, and at the same time giving them their space. it was amazing how close to some of the islands and rock outcroppings we were able to get. Eventually, after a quick trip on the open ocean, we headed up Aialik Bay towards the Aialik Glacier. We first past by Holgate Arm, and could see the Holgate Glacier at the end. At about this time, the crew began serving dinner on the lower deck of the boat. Being on the second deck, we were served last, just as we came in view of the Aialik Glacier. The two good sized pieces of salmon were great, as I wolfed them down and ran outside to see the glacier. We passed by many icebergs as we pushed up the bay to the glacier itself. The captain parked us in front of it and shut the engines down. We spent about 20 minutes there, listening to the groaning, creaking, and cracking of the nearly mile wide glacier. We did see some small calving events as pieces of ice fell into the bay. We also saw black bears alongside the glacier, and harbor seals in the water around it.

This trip was great, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you are ever in Anchorage, do yourself a favor and check out Kenai Fjords Tours. Get on the train to Seward and take the tour! Only $129 per adult and includes salmon dinner. We had good luck on our Alaska trip in that the weather was great everytime we went on a sightseeing trip. We had mostly sunny and clear conditions, and the temperature was comfortable. The kids had a great time despite the initial protests from Dakota and Colton (the resident homebody). They got lots of great photos. This pretty much completed our list of things to do in Seward, which we enjoyed very much. We had made it pretty much our home away from home for a week and a half. It was time to begin heading south.