July 19, 2015 – Seward Alaska – Day trip by boat into Kenai Fjords National Park out of Seward Alaska. This is a photo heavy post. One-in-a-million day, amazing skies, perfect temperature, calm water, lots of wildlife. Whales, Orcas, Dolphins, Sea Lions, Fur Seals, Harbor Seals, Sea Otters, Puffins, Guillemots/Murres, Kittiwakes, Bald Eagles were all out and enjoying the sun too. Fjords with forests down to the rocky edge, rocky islands with water lapping around their base. Kayaks, sailboats, fishing boats, tour boats, cruise ships, everyone was out on the water. Finished up with a nice dinner on a private island.
Here’s an overview map based on my GPS track. It doesn’t start right at Seward because I forgot to turn on the GPS until late.
I think I’ll let the captions on the photos tell the story this time. So start the slideshow…
Walking along the waterfront in Seward heading for the docks.
Boarding pass for my tour
Floating docks from on board the boat.
Cruise ship in port, so lots of people on the tours
Another tour boat
Where the mountains meet the sea.
Looking through that gap, next stop is Asia.
Kayakers stopped for a break
Folks Fishing
Sailing
The mountains drop right into the sea and are scoured clean where the waves wash.
Common Murre
The black lines on this Glacier are rocks. They were deposited along the outer edges of tributary glaicers as they flowed along smaller valleys.
Dolphin, we saw them at a distance, hard to get a well timed shot, and video was hard to aim because the screen was dim and the day bright.
Whale giving us a wave.
These whales are “logging”, what amounts to sleeping, where half of their brain shuts down while the other half keeps them breathing.
Hard to point the camera and not get a great shot on a day like today.
Common Murres
Bright day.
We spent a while watching a pod of Orcas.
Apparently this was quite a treat for the locals, Orcas aren’t frequently seen here.
We stopped and watched as they swam past.
A couple of older Orcas
And a few smaller ones
The younger group swimming side by side.
Looking back at our wake
Starboard looking forward
Port looking forward
Another Common Murre.
A bay along the Fjord.
Ice from the Glacier
Ice calving from the Glacier
Kayakers watching the Glacier for a safe distance
Looking over the end of the Glacier at the mountain behind
A clear bit of Ice. Clear means no air bubbles.
Selfie w/Glacier
More calving
This was one of the most active Glaciers I saw on the trip. The face here is about 300 feet tall.
Kayakers had to move a bit when some larger ice fell and caused a couple of big waves. No worries they had warning.
Holding an iceberg
Wide shot
Harbor Seals hauled out on the floating ice.
We kept our distance so we didn’t make them nervous.
Kittiwake
On to the next destination
My spot on the front deck. My day pack served as a nice back cushion, and when I got up to take a photo or two it held my spot.
This puffin in flight is leading us to our next destination
Next stop Chiswell Islands. Notice the gap between rocks, then see the white birds flying in front.
Lots of birds on and flying around every island.
Puffins on the island
Kittiwake flying alongside the boat
Puffins
Puffins
A raft of birds, something interesting in the water there.
Common Murres
Puffin
Puffin
Nesting area for Murres
As I was taking photos of these sea lions…
A whale surfaced in the background.
Birds following the whale.
Grotto on the end of this small island was home to many Sea Lions.
Cormmorant
A couple of sea otters
This big sea lion was making a lot of noise and had just chased another off the rock.
watch as…
He dives in.
Cormmorants
Whale
Whale heading our way.
Flowers perched on a towering rock wall.
Kittiwakes
All sorts of birds flying every which way overhead.
Closer look at the Kittiwakes nesting.
ID’d as a Shearwater – per comments
Lots of birds hanging out here
Representative sample
A sea lion pupping area. University of Alaska maintains several cameras and sensor packages here.
Rear upper deck
Indoors downstairs
The tour company’s private island resort dock. We’re heading here for a nice dinner.
All the boats have “Explorer” in the name, so when you leave the boat be sure you remember the first word. “I was on the something explorer” isn’t going to help.
Dinning room. Food served buffet style and we pretty good.
I opted to pay extra for some king crab.
Bald eagle after dinner.
Back at Seward, here’s the ticket dispenser for parking your RV in the converted gravel baseball lot.
Sunday evening, the overflow lot was almost full last night, but I’m about the only resident staying here tonight.
