We had quite the eventful day on Thursday. We left Denali Park Wednesday morning and traveled through Anchorage, past the forest fire, down to Seward. We spent Wednesday night close to the water and Thursday morning, boarded The Star of the Northwest for a five hour tour of the Kenai Fjord.
The rocky cliffs were shrouded in clouds and mist. It was very beautiful and the park ranger who was on board said we were very fortunate to have the visibility we did.
The rocky cliffs were shrouded in clouds and mist. It was very beautiful and the park ranger who was on board said we were very fortunate to have the visibility we did.
Right from the start, before we even boarded the boat actually, we saw plenty of Bald Eagles. They were everywhere! We even saw a juvenile terrorizing the sea gulls.
We saw lots and lots of waterfowl including many different kinds of ducks, loons, sea gulls and two different kinds of puffins.
We saw two sea otters. I was only able to get a picture of one of them...boy was he/she cute! The park ranger (Deanna) said they can get up to five feet long. That's as tall as me!
Seeing the sea lions gathered on the rocky shore was pretty special too. We saw a few in the water, but most of them were sunning themselves, though I'm not sure how that is possible since the sun was behind clouds :) There were quite a few of them and some were very vocal.
We also got to see a Glacier. I believe this one is called Bear Glacier. I was surprised at how cold it was near the glacier, but then, it is made of ice!
All of the above was amazing to see, but the highlight of the tour, even for the ship's crew, was the sighting of NINE humpback whales! The park ranger on board said that you might get one whale sighting per tour and then you will probably only see it's back. The captain received a report about where some humpback whales were feeding, so he took the ship out of the usual course to go see them.
All in all, we counted nine large spectacular whales. And even more exciting, they were bubble net feeding. Up to six of them would rise up out of the water at the same time! The ranger said that it is extremely rare to see this. She hasn't seen in it two years and she said it can be up to twenty years between sightings. God has been so good this trip, allowing us to see incredible things that according to others around us, are not usually seen with the clarity we have seen them. Some of the whales surfaced fifty feet from the boat.
All in all, we counted nine large spectacular whales. And even more exciting, they were bubble net feeding. Up to six of them would rise up out of the water at the same time! The ranger said that it is extremely rare to see this. She hasn't seen in it two years and she said it can be up to twenty years between sightings. God has been so good this trip, allowing us to see incredible things that according to others around us, are not usually seen with the clarity we have seen them. Some of the whales surfaced fifty feet from the boat.
Before all of this exciting stuff happened, on our way out of Denali Park, we spotted a mother moose and her twin calves alongside the road. They were eating in the ditch, just fifteen-twenty feet away. The calves hid in the woods at first, but soon joined their mama. I was able to get some adorable pictures of the babies.
So that's a little of what we've been doing the last few days. Yesterday was spent in Anchorage at the Bass Pro Shop and Cabela's. Then we backtracked to Tok, where we spent the night. Not sure where we are headed from here, but I'll post again in the next few days :)
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