TUESDAY, AUGUST 13

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13:

     Today we went on a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park.  Water makes up most of this National Park; the Exit Glacier portion which we explored yesterday makes up only a small part of the Park.  In this way, similar to Glacier Bay Nat’l Park.

     Major Marine, the tour company we booked with, offers 2 tours of the Park, both of which are billed as Wildlife & Glacier cruises.  We originally chose the longer, 7 ½ -hour cruise, largely because we had a 2-for-1 coupon.  However, a couple of days earlier, they called to say that the boat which does that tour had blown an engine.  What is it with us and transportation vehicles blowing engines??  Anyway, they offered us a couple of options, and we went with the shorter tour (6 hours).  The person we talked with explained that the only difference was that the longer one went to 2 tidewater glaciers, instead of just 1.  But otherwise, the same route, etc.

     So we boarded in the late morning.   The boat was filled almost to capacity (about 200 people), which didn’t surprise us, since the other tour was cancelled all week.  This company  has reserved/assigned seating, which works well in a crowded tour like this one – you can use your seat as  your home base to leave all your stuff when you go outside.  Plus, you don’t need to be in a hurry to board and try to get premium seats – you can relax during the boarding process.

                                                                                    

 

     The weather wasn’t great – was overcast, and of course very cool when the boat was moving, but not raining, for which we were thankful.    So we were able to spend a good deal of time out on deck.  This cruise actually leaves the calm, protected waters of Seward’s Resurrection Bay and goes out into the Gulf of Alaska for a portion of the tour.  It can get pretty choppy out there, even on relatively calm days like this one.  I was prepared – I’d taken a Dramamine before we left.  And was I glad! – when I saw several people looking green, and the attentive crew handing them barf bags and offering whatever comfort they could, I could only have compassion for them!  But once we returned to calm waters in the fjords, everyone seemed to feel much better.

     We saw a lot of the same wildlife we’d seen on previous boat tours, but it’d been a while, and was wonderful to get to see those critters again.  Especially our lone sea otter, who was chowing down on an octopus leg.  According to both our Captain and National Park Service Naturalist, that’s a pretty rare sight.   

A group of puffins, a Dall’s porpoise (no photos) and a few glimpses of Humpback whales, but only showing us their dorsal fins and evocative flumes.  

 

     The scenery was lovely.  During the first part of the tour, saw several outcroppings of land with wild, wooded vegetation, as well as lots of mysterious hollowed-out sea caves.  It was reminiscent of Misty Fjords, way back at the first of our trip, especially with the fog and mists today. 

 

 

                                                            

 

       At center stage, of course, was our destination - Holgate Glacier.   We lingered at its face for 20 minutes or more.  And actually, as we’d been told several times, the overcast skies actually brought out the blue hues of the ice.  Heard and saw it calve a couple of times – the second time a pretty good chunk fell off, but Bill had the binoculars on at the time and couldn’t get a camera shot in time.

 

                                                          

 

 

There was actually a smaller glacier right next to Holgate, not a tidewater one since it didn’t come down to the water, but a valley glacier. 

 

 

 And climbing the sheer cliffs next to that ice we spotted a mountain goat working his way down to who-knows-what – maybe some tasty vegetation. 

 

 

         On the way back, we saw both Steller Sea Lions and Harbor seals.

And, as we were hurrying back to the harbor because we were running a little late, what should the Captain spot but another Humpback!  You could tell that she (the female captain) was torn between wanting to get back on time and slowing down to give us one more coveted chance of seeing more of the whale’s entire body. She did slow down, and just as she was saying, “Folks, it’s too bad we can’t linger here longer, but we’re already running late and need to get back as soon as we can so that those people who are riding the train back to Anchorage can catch it on time,” the whale chose that moment to breach!  The poor Captain was totally flustered.  She just gave up and let us watch for a few moments.  That whale breached 3 or 4 more times!  But it was raining some, almost all of us were inside, it was foggy, and the whale was out in the distance – so no real chance to get any photos.  But we could still see it – a sight to remember as the Humpback’s parting gift to us.  Our hat was off to the Captain – she knew it would make the entire trip more memorable by letting us stay and see that, but she did need to call ahead and let the train folks know that those passengers were coming so that it would wait a few minutes for them!  She ought to get a pat on the back from her boss for her quick, good judgment, where everyone was a winner!    

     Soggy and wet outside, so we had a frozen pizza inside.  I had actually taken another Dramamine while on board, and the cumulative effect of the two was taking hold – I was zonked out by 10:00!