Alaska Guidebook: Seward (Kenai Fjords)

On the way out to Seward, stop at Kenai Lake.  This is one of my favorite places.  The glacial blue water is amazing.  

Seward is another little coastal town.  Home to Kenai Fjords National Park.  This is the main attraction for Seward and worth the trip!  There are several boat options for the Kenai Fjords.  We chose the 8.5-hour trip, but because of weather (10-16 foot swells on the water), ours was cut down to a 4.5-hour trip within Resurrection Bay, which is protected from the wind and waves, meaning we didn't get to see the big blue glaciers falling into the water.  Disappointing, but at the end of it, we decided that 4.5 hours was better for the girls and the boat ride was still amazing.  We saw some beautiful scenery despite the clouds and rain, plus humpback whales, sea lions, sea otters, porpoises, a million birds, bald eagles, and mountain goats (as well as hoary marmot that was too small and too far off to photograph).

The otters were being playful, though they look rather vicious in this picture. The ones we saw later were more restful.

We learned that bald eagles don't develop their familiar coloring until full-grown, and when young they look like this:

We saw several mountain goat babies, and plenty more solitary mountain goats.

We got to stop at Fox Island for a prime rib and salmon buffet and to look around.  Celia (and Sabrina) drew enough pictures in their workbooks that they got to take the Junior Ranger pledge and become official Kenai Fjords National Park Junior Rangers.  (Yes, I had to hold up Celia's arm and say the pledge for her.)

As we got out the opening of the bay, we started hitting the big waves that prevented us from seeing the glaciers in the adjacent fjords. For a while the captain asked everyone to stay inside as the waves were washing up over the bow, which Celia enjoyed watching as she colored.

Near the opening of the bay the one glacier we were able to see is called Bear Glacier, which is the largest in the park, but because of the wind direction we couldn't get all that close to it.

On the way back a group of probably a dozen porpoises started racing the boat, popping out right in front of the boat. As we were standing on the bow, they were directly under us.

The only part of Kenai Fjords National Park to which you can drive and hike into is Exit Glacier.  The trail up to the glacier was still covered in snow, but it was fun hiking up to see a glacier so close up.