We took two different overnight trips while they were here... one to Seward and one to Cordova. We also did a few things around Anchorage, including me running a 5 mile race on Saturday and then all of us checking out a downtown market and the Alaska Native Heritage Center. This post is mainly going to be about the trip to Seward, since I got a "few" fun photos especially on our glacier and wildlife cruise. The Cordova adventure will be in the next post.
We headed out on the Aialik Voyager (Kenai Fjords Tours) on an absolutely beautiful day...
And before long, we had some Dall's Porpoise swimming alongside our boat. At first there were just a couple, but when we continued on we suddenly had a group of about 10 swimming with us. How fun! I had to use my wide angle lens because they were so close and moving so fast.
Passing by Bear Glacier
And some harbor seals (See them on the rocks just above the water? One is looking right at us)
Stellar Sea Lions. These guys can actually pull themselves up on the rocks, whereas the seals have to wait for the tide to sort of "deposit" them on the rocks.
As we got out closer to the Gulf of Alaska, we got into some swell waves from an approaching storm. I was having fun photographing the waves crashing on the rocks. I'm pretty sure most other people wondered what I was seeing that was making me snap away!
The waves were also crashing around the sea lions. Sometimes they were knocked off the rocks... kinda funny to watch.
We saw several humpback whales on this trip... this is one of them. I even got to see a couple breach along the way, but those were quite far from the boat so photos wouldn't really work (with my equipment, anyway).
Our "destination" for this trip was Aialik (pronounced eye-al-ick) Glacier. This is the wide view of it as we started heading up the fjord.
Did I mention it was a beautiful day?! We couldn't have asked for nicer weather.
The water is a bit icy... lots of ice chunks from the glacier as we got close to it. There were several seals laying on the ice... this is the one photo I got as we passed by them. He looks pretty comfy... not sure I'd agree if I was laying on that ice!
A closer-in view of Aialik Glacier
I missed the first big calving while we were in front of the glacier (I was watching somewhere else on the glacier, and they're quick... if you're not looking when it starts, you miss it), but I caught another very good one. The next 8 photos are a series of one calving. The captain told us that the large chunks are the size of a house. And if you notice the black spot near the bottom of the last few photos, that's a seal laying on a chunk of ice. That should give a little perspective to this!
As we moved away from the glacier so the next tour boat could have their turn, the captain spotted another humpback whale and went over toward it as fast as he could. He looks so close to shore, and he's huge. You might wonder if he might hit bottom. Well, this is a fjord... it's not very wide, and it's several hundred feet deep. There's no "shallow end" of this pool!
At one point, I looked up to the second deck and saw this view. I thought it was interesting... on a few different levels.
As we were headed back to Seward, we got to see several orcas (killer whales), including a mom and baby. This was a first for me... I hadn't seen them before.
The baby is coming up out of the water as mom is heading back under water.
The closest shot I got of an orca. They're pretty neat creatures!
That was the last of the big excitement for that cruise. It was all great stimulation to keep me awake after my last midnight shift! The next morning, we hiked to Exit Glacier, only a few miles from Seward. This glacier is retreating, and you can see year markers along the way that signify where the glacier's edge was at that time (like the 1951 sign in this photo).
As we got closer to the glacier, much more of the glacial moraine and silt were evident.
After we made it to the glacier edge, we went down to check out the outwash plain. There was definitely more water flowing this time than last year... thanks to the awesomely snowy winter I'm sure!
After this, we went to the Alaska Sealife Center. They have an awesome room where you can be out with several sea birds flying around you. It's my favorite part of the place.
They also have a couple touch tanks with some neat creatures like these in there.
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