KENAI FJORD

KENAI FJORD TOUR

   On Wednesday, our final day in Alaska, we took a boat tour of the Kenai Peninsula.  We were up early, before coffee, and headed out to Seward, Alaska to catch a small ship, carrying 150 tourists, along the Kenai islands in the edge of the sea.  This all day trip would take us as far as a glacier field, where we would see glaciers moving and breaking off and falling into the sea.

   Kenai Fjord Tours offered a great experience for viewing ocean wildlife and moving glaciers.  Our Captain had 22 years of experience and proved to be a good tour guide for our group.

   After driving the two hours to Seward, we were there at 0730 as they requested.  We parked in a shuttled parking lot and got our boarding tickets for the ship.  We began boarding at 0815.  

   Throughout the day we had many stops for wildlife viewing.  There were more birds than I could imagine...some I had never known. 

   As we left the dock, our first encounter was with a lazy Sea Otter.  He was content with floating around on his back, enjoying a snack of fresh shellfish as we invaded his privacy with oooh's 'n ahhh's 'n photographs.  The Otter didn't seem to mind. 

   As we left the bay, we were met by another Otter or two.  Then came the Dall Porpoises jumping through the water.  They appeared to be playing, but we're probably feeding.  These were small in size, more like the size of a large Salmon than a Porpoise.  There were many of these in the Kenai around Resurrection Bay. 

   Our Captain chased down a pod of Orcas farther out into the sea. They were traveling pretty fast as we watched them jump through the water. We found other Orcas feeding in the ocean. They were beautiful, magnificent, deadly and awesome, all at the same time.

   We sailed into a bay to watch a glacier. Most of the worlds' glaciers are receding at a much faster rate than we would like. The glacier we see today is no exception. According to our Captain, this glacier, less than 100 years ago, was 10 miles farther out and 300' high. We spent a half hour close to the glacier. It often cracked with a loud crack; sometimes followed by ancient ice tumbling into the sea. One of the boat staffers retrieved a piece of the glacial ice with a dip net. It was amazingly clear ice.

   Leaving this Fjord we resumed our quest for sea life. The Captain stopped the ship along one particularly steep-sided rock island to watch a couple of Humpback Whales as they fished. The Whales would submerge and blow a ring of bubbles that caused a school of small fish to bunch closer together. Then quickly, the Whales swam upward through the school, eating a few dozen at a time! We watched them do this several times. Pretty cool to watch.

   We cruised up close to Seals sunning themselves on the warm rocks in several places along the islands. We spied a lone Bald Eagle perched high on a rock, checking out the picture-taking tourists.

The Fjord tour was great! Very impressive! Seward would be a great area in which to spend more time sightseeing, hiking and fishing.

   Back to the Hotel. We have an 0610 flight to catch!

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