Seward was developed as a railroad town in 1903 and is the southern terminus for the Alaska Railroad. The port of Seward handles freight for the Alaska Railroad and serves as a cruise ship port in the summer. The small boat harbor is also active throughout the summer with daily glacier cruise departures and sport fishing charters.
We boarded our tour boat with great expectations...and they were met! This is the one marine tour I would recommend above all others. We had a captain that is a marine biologist and his love of the Fjords and their wildlife was very apparent. He was an excellent tour guide. He knew just how much time to spend with each revelation, and had a complete knowledge of the terrain and its inhabitants. He was young and had a great sense of humor and his voice was well modulated and seemed to be trained. Couldn't have asked for a better Captain.
It started out a foggy, misty day with a threat of showers, but as the morning unfolded the shadowy morning bloomed into a beautiful bright sunshiny day. It was perfect weather. My expectations of seeing much wildlife was not high, but all that was washed away with the quick sighting of a humpback whale just shortly after we got underway!
The Captain was hyped to see so many whales so early in the day and the season. He was able to describe the whales and their feeding, sleeping, and roaming habits. He explained exactly why some whales were endangered and others were not. We saw 8 whales to the best of my memory. Mostly humpbacks.
Captain Dan Olsen was also excited to tell us about sea lions, sea otters, dolphins, porpoises, harbor seals and their lifestyles, all of which, except dolphins, we saw on this trip. He was amazing. But the best came with the birds! I have never pretended to ever see so many birds in one place. He knew each one, its habits, its genetic makeup, etc. We saw puffins and their cousins, sea gulls and their cousins, merts, burts and squirts, the likes and names of which I'll never remember.
He and the glaciers seemed to be close friends! We were able to view several glaciers up close and personal, and listen to the thundering noise that emanated from deep within the icy appendage. We watched in wonder as the ice and snow poured down the face of the glacier and crashed into the fjord. We had no close calls or anything to make anyone nervous. It was a glorious day.
Our trip was scheduled from 10 AM to 6:30 PM with lunch aboard the ship, and dinner served on an island. The dinner was good for me, I did eat all the salmon I possibly could! It was grilled and served fresh and hot. YUM.
The boat was very comfortable and had huge windows - we were able to sit on the upper deck and make quick exit to the rails when a photo op was sighted. The Captain would slow the ship, or put it in neutral, or even kill the engines in order to make the opportunity as fulfilling as possible.
Although Phyllis didn't get the meal she had ordered, and we had a wait on the second round of salmon, it was an awesome adventure. The four of us were very very pleased with the entire tour. Our fellow passengers were all friendly and polite. It was heaven.
Kenai Fjords National Park
It is said that the Kenai Peninsula is a microcosm of Alaska—almost every type of ecosystem in the state is represented. And at the tip of that peninsula, a comfortable 3 hour drive from Anchorage, the crenulated coastline of Kenai Fjords National Park is home to some of most pristine, rugged, breathtaking glacial vistas in North America.
The massive Harding icefield, with the occasional nunatak ("lonely peak") rising up from its almost perfectly level surface, feeds the 38 glaciers of the park. These glaciers, in turn, have been sculpting the fjords themselves since the Pleistocene era, in the process making a home for the many species of marine life—mammals, fish, and and seabird alike—that throng here.
Click on the following to see my pictures. I narrowed them down from 300 to 140-ish!
http://outddoor.blogspot.com/?zx=d5329d66be9d1f31
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