More Glaciers and Wildlife

We drove from Homer up to Seward. Seward is the port that most cruise ships begin, end, or turn around in on Alaskan cruises and historically has been a major shipping port as it is the only one here that doesn’t freeze in the winter. The Kenai Fjords National Park is located here, with the Harding Icefield which spawns nearly 40 glaciers, some of which are landlocked and others that go to the sea. The Icefield covers ~ 700 square miles, is over 1,000 feet thick, and receives ~ 100 feet of snow a year.

Our campsite is next to the Resurrection River flowing from the Exit Glacier in the park. About 200 feet from our site there is a tree with an active eagle’s nest.

Exit Glacier is the only one that can be reached by road. It is amazing how far it has receded in the past 150 years. In 1815, the glacier covered where I stood to take this picture of it.

We were fortunate to have an exceptional day Saturday when we took a boat for a 7 hour tour of Resurrection Bay, the Park, and some of the glaciers in it. Resurrection Bay, like the bays surrounding it, are technically fjords. It reaches nearly 1,000 feet in depth and was an important location during WWII when Fort McGilvray was built on the western headland and on the eastern headland floodlights were placed so that the guns at the fort could target incoming enemy forces.

It was a trip to remember – we saw pods of orcas, humpback whales, seals, Stellar sea lions, sea otters, and numerous shore birds.

We saw a number of humpback whales, and there was a humpback mother and calf. The calf was active but not mom.

The captain got us up close to the Aialak Glacier and a boatload of seals.

Mom and seal pup, with another pup floating nearby.

Oops!!!

It is hard to say what made more noise, the glacier calving or the Stellar sea lions! The males can weigh 2,500 lbs. The colony had a number of pups with their moms.

Towards the end of the trip we went by Bear Glacier. This glacier ends in what is called a terminal moraine (a buildup of the material that is created when the glacier grinds down the rock from the mountains) which is the beach you can see in this picture. It was cool to see the icebergs floating behind the beach in the glacial lagoon.