Monday (7/10) was cloudy and rainy all day. We drove south from Wasilla, and straight through Anchorage. We will be back in this area later in the trip, so we didn’t spend any time there. Anchorage doesn’t look too exciting, anyway. But, maybe the clouds and rain gave us the wrong impression. We headed south on AK-1 and marveled at the sites as we drove by Turnagain Arm (a section of the Cook Inlet). Even with the uncooperative weather, the mountains and seaside combined for interesting landscapes.
We took our time driving toward Seward. The winding road offered many places to stop and admire the scenery. We arrived in late afternoon and spent some time seeing the sites, including the Visitor Center for Kenai Fjords National Park. Then, we enjoyed some fresh seafood at Ray’s Waterfront while watching the boats come into the harbor for the evening.
After dinner, we drove a couple of miles out of town to the Seward KOA RV Park, which is another all-gravel lot packed to capacity with campers and RV’s. About a half mile before we arrived, we saw another moose (but didn’t get any photos this time). That was the only wildlife we saw for the day, but still fun to see. Lucy and I went for a nice walk in the evening to view the Resurrection River bed across the street from the RV park.
Tuesday (7/11) was the day for our Kenai Fjords Boat Tour of the National Park. We left Lucy with Daphne, an excellent dog sitter we found on Rover.com, and boarded our vessel for the all day tour. Downtown Seward was completely fogged in as we started our excursion. The fog lifted just enough as we left the harbor so that we could see some wildlife and enjoy the interesting shoreline.
The weather was not ideal for seeing any of the area mountains. But, the clouds did not interfere with our enjoyment of the abundant wildlife. We saw sea otters, harbor seals, puffins, bald eagles, rhinoceros auklets, and other wildlife.
We were also able to see several glaciers during our tour. There are nearly 40 active glaciers in this glorious national park. The highlight of the day for us, however, was watching a group of about eight humpback whales bubble-net feeding. This is a rare sight. In fact, one of the deck hands told me it was only the second time he had experienced this. The whales swim together below the surface, creating a “net” of bubbles that rise to the surface, trapping fish. The whales then come to the surface together with their mouths gaping wide open, capturing the bounty of fish. Watching these incredibly large whales come to the surface was simply amazing.
Our 8.5 hour long boat tour included a stop at nearby Fox Island for a nice salmon dinner before returning to Seward harbor. I’m working on a short video that will provide some additional views of our trip. Hope to post that video to our website soon. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Kenai Fjords National Park and Seward, AK!
Amazing whale pictures!