Eas-On Down The Road

Monday, July 24, 2017

Kenai Fjords National Park: The Glaciers

A highlight of our time in Seward was our Northwestern Glacier Tour with Kenai Fjords Tours.
This was a special trip for us, one that measured up to it's expectations. In fact, I took so many photos, I have to have 2 separate blog posts. This one is about the glacier scenery we saw and the next blog will have the wildlife photographs.

To learn more about Kenai Fjords National Park click here.
Of course, our day started off cloudy with low fog over Resurrection Bay. Once we arrived to the Northwestern Glacier, the clouds and fog had moved out to reveal the stunning blue of glacier ice.

These harbor seals were sunning themselves on the floating sea ice at the base of Northwestern Glacier.

Our tour boat captain pointed out the layering seen here in this different glacier. (We saw several.) It's caused by sediment falling from the valley walls then more glacial ice forming on top from snowfall.

There was no way to really understand the scope of the size of what we were seeing..until we saw this pleasure boat.

The amazing scenery looked like a post card everywhere we looked.

The tour boat captain described this cove of waterfalls as "their Jurassic Park". Again, we were awed by the size of our surroundings as we got closer to these waterfalls. I think I remember the boat captain calling this Aialik Bay.

Everyone lined up (the boat was filled to capacity) to have their picture taken by the tour boat's hostesses with your own cell phone..no charge!

Now for the wildlife we saw on this nature tour.

Scenes From Seward

Our eleven days in Seward went by fast but there were days when time seemed to drag by. Most of our days there were dreary with low clouds and fog or it was a steady rain most of the day. When the sun did make it's appearance, we took advantage of the clear weather, getting out to see the surrounding majestic mountains.

Here's the Seward Public Library and Museum.

The Museum was interesting with lots of antiques from times past, info on the town's development as well as the effects of the Alaska 1964 earthquake. Seward was hard hit and I was told they played a "must see" video about the earthquake. When I inquired about that video, the Museum's desk attendant said they no longer played it but there were many photos in albums on display as well as the exhibits on the earthquake.

Seward had several beautiful and colorful murals but I seemed to only capture these few..

A small section of Seward's downtown business district.

This is the monument dedicating Seward's discovery.

Seward's development info here.

Ronnie and I did take a quick hike up to Exit Glacier. We did not walk up to the ice field or to the higher viewpoints for the glacier. These photos are with my telephoto camera lens.

There were about 2 or 3 really sunny warm days and we got out to enjoy the scenery. We were also able to move to one of the town's waterfront campsites. There's no hook ups for campers but the view makes doing without electricity and water for a few days worth it!

There were these abandoned pier pilings right in front of our campsite. It was interesting to watch the extreme tides effect on them.

We also drove to the other side of Resurrection Bay. We found lots of fishing, more amazing scenery and tundra swans. That's the town of Seward you see at the base of the mountain.

The view of the cruise ship from the opposite side of Resurrection Bay.

View of the same cruise ship, but from our campsite. That's an unused coal tipple for the coal that used to be mined and shipped out from Seward.

This beautiful marsh reveled this family of tundra swans out enjoying the sunny day too.

Finally, a day trip to the town of Whitter since the sun was shining and we could possibly enjoy more mountain scenery.

To get to the town of Whitter, you have to drive through the longest tunnel in North America. The The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, built in 1941-43, was a direct link for war supplies to Alaska. To learn more about this tunnel's amazing history, click here. The tunnel has tracks that you must drive on and since it's only wide enough for one lane of traffic, there is a schedule for all vehicles passing through the tunnel.