Showing My First Summer Visitors of 2012 An Alaskan Good Time - Part 2

And now... our trip to an Alaskan town off the road system... Cordova! The only ways to get to Cordova are by boat or plane. This is something that's been on my Alaska bucket list for awhile now, and these friends were willing to come along and help me check it off the list. We took the ferry from Whittier to Cordova on a Monday, stayed in Cordova for 2 nights, took the ferry to Valdez on Wednesday morning, and drove back to Anchorage from there on Wednesday. Cordova is in a rain forest, and it did in fact rain almost the entire time we were there. It only stopped the morning we were leaving. We still had fun though, and listening to the rain fall on our cabin's roof was very relaxing!

The ferry ride provided some great scenery as we left Whittier especially. It's about a 3 1/4 hour ride to Cordova from Whittier, and once we got out into the middle of Prince William Sound where we couldn't see land anymore, I actually napped. I didn't want to, but I caught a bug that was going around our group and was wiped out. I did get a few photos along the way though...

The town of Whittier. There was a military facility established in Whittier during World War II, and the site was chosen because of its bad weather (clouds shroud the town many days each year... helpful for being hidden from enemy aircraft) and its close proximity to Anchorage. It's only about an hour away via car or train. Today it's mainly a port that provides entry to Prince William Sound for fisherman, kayakers, and others.

A great Alaska scene... a boat, some kayakers, and people fishing. Not to mention the waterfalls you can see just a little bit of in the background. There's just so much to see and do around here!

That's another ferry boat going toward Whittier... with a glacier behind it.

Just one of several waterfalls we could see along the way.

Had to get a 180 degree view of what we were seeing as we left Passage Canal.

Near the edge of Passage Canal and Prince William Sound... apparently a great fishing spot!

Once we got to Cordova, we found our cabin and settled in for the evening to just relax. The next day we went downtown to explore in the morning, and then went the opposite direction on the Copper River Highway in the afternoon to do some wildlife/scenery exploring. I had been excited to go see Child's Glacier and the famed Million Dollar Bridge, but that's at mile 50 on the highway and there was a bridge at mile 35 that was washed away during a flood. Apparently they don't have the money to repair it, so nobody will be going to visit the glacier anytime soon. Very sad!  Thankfully there were other neat things to see along the road.

First, the wildlife! This is a juvenile bald eagle. They don't get their white head and tail until they're about 6 years old.

This eagle just casually reached into the water and grabbed this fish. Wow.

Those are some intense eyes!! I wouldn't mess with him/her. :)

How many eagles do you see?  When I took the picture, I thought I was photographing 4 eagles in the trees. Later, at home, I counted 7.  There could surely be more! I've always had a fascination with eagles... so I was like a kid in a candy store with all these eagles around me!

Coming in for a landing...

We also saw some trumpeter swans... and one couple (below) was nesting. Pretty neat.

Another pair of trumpeter swans...

And despite the rain, there was still some great scenery.

The first two photos are from Tuesday morning when we went to Cordova proper. The first one is looking toward Cordova and the second is looking the opposite direction (This is where we stopped for the eagle photos where they're standing on the ground).

The small boat harbor in Cordova. Cordova is a huge fishing town, to say the least.

We did get to see a glacier... this is Sheridan Glacier. We went down a side road and found the trail head to it.  I bet it's pretty spectacular on a sunny day!

So many shades of green!

Cordova had over 30 FEET of snow this past winter. While the main road was cleared and overall snow-free, there were a few spots with some still impressive snow drifts.

This was on the side road that led to Sheridan Glacier. We decided to leave the van here and walk the rest of the way to the trail head (and glacier). Thankfully the trail head was only around this next corner!

The greening trees and remaining snow left an interesting contrast.

I wonder how much snow WAS here before melting started! 

Quite the drift that remains! Pretty neat.

This is just this past winter's snow... again, impressive remains for the middle of June!

A young lupine plant. I liked how it looked in the rain.

And more lupine... mature flowers on the upper right. So pretty!

And now... our ferry ride to Valdez. Another cloudy/rainy trip, but I got a few scenic shots.

A couple views of Cordova as we headed out. I believe that Copper River Seafoods had a roof collapse this past winter from all the snow.  I could be wrong though.

Getting into the Valdez Port area.

That pretty much wraps up their trip. We drove back to Anchorage as soon as we got off the ferry since some of the people in the group needed to catch a flight that night. I had hoped to be able to stop and see/photograph Horse Tail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls in Keystone Canyon, but the road through there was being repaved. There was a pilot car leading us through the construction zone, so we couldn't stop.  I knew they'd be impressive falls after this past winter's snowfall, and they were. Hopefully I'll get back there sometime this summer to get some photos!  'Til next time...

Showing My First Summer Visitors of 2012 An Alaskan Good Time

My first visitors of the summer came at the beginning of June, and being the great friend that I am, I showed them some of the greatness that is Alaska.  Or maybe they allowed me to tag along on their adventure. Either way, I got to share in part of their trip here (when I wasn't working) and had some amazing experiences!

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. 

'Til next time...