Travels with Shelby

4 August 2016 - Boat Tour of Kenai Fjords National Park

The standard tour routes shown. Seward, the starting point, is at the very top, at the end of Resurrection Bay. Holgate Glacier is the at the mid- left, below the "D" in Fjords, and Aialik Glacier at the top center arm, above the "P" in Park.

We opted for the 7.5 hour boat tour to the Kenai Fjords National Park, with Major Marine Tours. 

View from the upper stern deck of our tour boat while still at the dock

Our assigned seats were in the first row facing the front windows of the top deck - pretty nice! For the first 2 1/2 hours, although the skies were overcast, we could see the mountains fairly well. We saw most of the wildlife of the cruise during that time as we moved down Resurrection Bay – sea otters, eagles, harbor seals, sea lions, and a mountain goat while we were still in the bay. The captain strayed from the usual cruise course to go around the north end of Fox Island and around Cape Resurrection into Day Harbor, where orcas had been sighted. We did see the orcas surface a number of times, but not long enough for photos. A family of 4 adult and 3 juvenile mountain goats were visible high on the rocky slope, but are hardly visible in the photos. All along the way we saw many sea birds, mostly tufted puffins and common murres.

This sea otter looks like he wants to ask us why we're disturbing his nap. Otters are common in Resurrection Bay - Tom saw several just a few feet offshore from the walking trail by the RV park.

Waterfall and colorful rocks along Resurrection Bay west shore

Looking toward the islands at the south end of Resurrection Bay - another tour boat ahead

Mountain goat perched high above - how did he get there? More importantly, how will he get down?

Stellar sea lions basking on the rocks. With the warming of the ocean waters, the schools of fish that the seals and sea lions eat have diminished, and those remaining stay deeper down. Both seal and sea lion populations are declining as a consequence.

After a very bouncy passage in the Gulf of Alaska to get to Aialik (Eye-al’ick) Bay, we tucked into Three Hole Bay because a humpback whale had been reported. We never saw it, but a few other passengers thought they did. The fog had rolled in, and visibility was very limited. By the time we got to Holgate Glacier, we could barely see the top of the glacier. It and the larger Aialik Glacier have retreated quite a bit over the past century, and soon will be Piedmont glaciers, not connecting with the water, instead of the tidewater glaciers that they are today. 

Surprise Glacier, just to the left of Holgate Glacier. Called Surprise because it is not visible on approach up the bay until one is right at Holgate Glacier.

Holgate Glacier is about half a mile across

Ice melt gushing from underneath Holgate Glacier.

Twin waterfalls coming down from the  Harding Ice Field atop the Kenai Peninsula near Holgate Glacier

We saw a few small splashes of ice dropping off Aialik, but no significant calving.

Just a small part of Aialik Glacier, which is a mile across at the base

Close up of the top of Aialik Glacier, showing the strange patterns of unevenly melted ice.

A stitched together composite of 3 pictures taken from the same spot showing the whole width of Aialik Glacier. Its transformation to a Piedmont glacier is evident in the patches of rock showing along the base.

We again looked for the humpback whale on our return trip to Seward, and were rewarded with a few glimpses of its back as it swam along feeding. The rest of the trip was disappointing, as the thick fog had settled in down to the water so that all we saw was gray! The national park ranger on board the boat gave a running commentary on the animals we were seeing and on the natural history of the area, including a few jokes that were almost painfully contrived, but got chuckles anyway. As we neared Seward, he made quite a ceremony of awarding Junior Ranger pins and certificates to the children on board who had completed a workbook with information and questions about the sights of the day.