Today we traveled over to Seward, about 2 hours away. We boarded the Kenai Fjords National Park Tour boat and stayed out on the water for 6 1/2 hours. This has been one of the most spectacular days I have ever spent, and I think Terry could say the same.
We began our journey at Resurrection Bay and went out into the Gulf of Alaska. Imagine starting out at a regular harbor filled with sailboats and tour boats. Except at this harbor there are huge mountains ringing all around the two street town of Seward. Tall mountains topped with snow and green trees on the bottom.
Resurrection Bay was carved by ice, like all fjords. When the glacier receded and sea levels rose, the valley became the bay. The bay remains ice free due to four types of non-mixing bodies of water. Today the bay is the gateway to the national park, which itself is composed of 600,000 acres. And the park is filled with God's beautiful handiwork.
The water again today was beautiful. I can only describe it as emerald blue if that makes any sense. Just a blue-green color that is just very pretty. As we started out, we could tell today was going to be perfect. The sky was clear and it was warm. If you call 63 degrees warm. The captain kept telling us the whole day what a perfect day it was. Later our waiter at supper again told us what a perfect day we had. The restaurant was right across the street from the harbor. He said on rainy days he couldn't even see the water across the street.
As we journeyed on towards the glacier we really wanted to see, we saw our first whales. YES! They were meandering around in the water, sorta taking their time about rising and looking for food. I believe the captain said they were probably resting. We'd wait about 5-7 minutes in between the times they would go under and then come back up. Throughout the day we must have seen whales about 5-6 different times. We saw Orcas, Greys and Humpbacks. Several times we saw the classic whale-tail (fluke) like you see in movies or pictures. Now get this. At one point we were really close to the whales. So close, that when they blew their spouts, we could smell their breath. This happened three times. Oh. My. Gosh. I have never smelled anything so rank in my life. I can't begin to describe it. Maybe rotten fish.
They were so gentle in their moving around. When they blew from the hole, there was no huge spewing of water like I've seen in movies. Our guide told us that actually only about a cup of water is blown.
We saw lots of seabirds, including puffins, cormorans, and bald eagles. The puffin is an interesting little bird. It's about 15 inches long, which is 5 inches longer than a robin. And it is heavy due to dense bones. They build their nests among the rocks of the cliffs.
We saw lots of porpoise. The one that was really interesting was the Dahl porpoise. It was black and white and darted about as fast as a minnow. Looked like they were having a great time of playing chase.
We saw sea lions piled up on rocks. Apparently the boss of each rock didn't like us invading their territory. They each would raise up and growl when we got close to their rock.
We traveled on and on and on. Finally we reached the part of the fjords that had the Aialik Glacier. It was a mile wide, 400 feet tall and went back into the ice fields for twenty miles. It was part of the Harding Icefield which all the glaciers we saw today are part of. The glacier was magnificent. One edge of it was dirty due to bits of broken rock it had pushed against as it moves on down towards the water. But the rest of it was something to behold. It had striations all over it. Parts of the ice were blue in color. I have no idea what caused that. Pieces of it were calving off. Terry caught some really great pictures of the calving. Icebergs were floating all around the boat. And seals were resting on the pieces of ice that were floating in the water. One of the workers on the boat netted a piece of ice and brought it aboard. I held it. I held history! The ice was clear as could be.
As we returned back towards the harbor, we saw mountain goats on the side of the mountain. And more whales and porpoises. Cool.
We returned to the harbor wind blown, tired and on a high about what all we saw today. It was a perfect day.
We had a delicious meal of halibut and salmon, with gelato for dessert. We struck out for home. But guess what---our excitement wasn't over yet. On the way home we saw two moose. Both were males. One just had nubs but the other had a huge rack of antlers. By the time we got the car turned around that huge moose had disappeared into the woods. Shoot.
We will try again on the pictures tomorrow. I'm too tired to even download them tonight. We have some really great ones!
BTW, it's still daylight at midnight.
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