Alaska 2013: Kenai Fjords Small Boat Tour (Day 3)

Jared and I woke up bright and early on Thursday morning (6/27) for our first boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park.

We ended up taking two all day boat trips while we were in Seward. This was one of the most expensive parts of the vacation, but I had a feeling we would really love being out on the water. I even called the tour office to discuss the merits of taking multiple trips (which, considering how much I hate talking to strangers on the phone, is a big deal).

I ultimately decided that we love mammal/bird watching more than most people, and that two trips would be worth it. I'm SO glad we decided to go for it, because we had the best time, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. We were fortunate to see incredible, but different things on both trips. We used a company called Kenai Fjords Tours for both trips, and I highly recommend them.

I ended up reserving our tours ahead of time, which seems to be a good idea for most Alaska summer excursions. That meant we also had to pick the dates for the tours well in advance. We were very lucky to have excellent weather on both days, and that's usually not the case, since it rains often.

I was also concerned about seasickness on these tours. Though I haven't been out on a boat in several years, I do get carsick, and poor Jared has been known to get epically sick on past birding pelagic tours off the coast of Maryland. I read several reviews that suggested it was a good idea to be prepared, since the boat tours go out into the Gulf of Alaska. I decided to try a scopolamine ear patch for the first time, since Jared has used it with success in the past. Boy, did it mess me up. It's like a tiny round band-aid that you stick behind your ear, and you're supposed to put it on the night before you need it. When I woke up the next morning, my mouth was extremely dry (common side effect) to the point that it was difficult to eat, and I felt dizzy and disoriented. I decided to stick with it for the day, and never felt seasick, so it did it's job. I would not use it again, however, because of the nasty side effects. For the second boat trip, I stuck with Bonine, and that worked fine.

After eating a quick breakfast and gathering our gear, Jared and I drove five minutes down to Seward, where we caught a bus to the Seward Small Boat Harbor.

For our first trip, we took the nine hour Captain's Choice Tour, which they advertise for birders and photographers. We went out in a very small boat with about 16 other people, so we were able to get very close to the wildlife. The downside to the small boat is that there isn't enough room inside for everyone to sit, so most people have to stay outside. If the weather had been bad, that could have been a problem, but we were just fine and preferred to stay outside for photos.

Our boat, the Mariah

Captain Tiffany made a point to ask everyone what they wanted to see, so she could determine where best to take the boat. The scenery in Resurrection Bay as we left Seward was breathtaking, and it got even better as we headed further into Kenai Fjords. The pictures don't really do it justice.

Within minutes of leaving the harbor, we started to see animals and birds. One of our first sightings was a Sea Otter, which I absolutely love. We ended up seeing several on the trip.

Next, a pod of Dall's Porpoises swam up to our boat and started to play in the wake at the front. This was one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip. We were able to get extremely close to the porpoises by leaning over the rail of the boat, and I couldn't stop myself from giggling every time one would splash, sending spray into my face. I managed to take a few photos and a video.

 
We also saw several Humpback Whales throughout the day, which was very cool. We only saw the tails and backs, though, no breaching.

I very much wanted to see Orcas (Killer Whales) in the wild, and our Captain delivered. We entered a cove and had several large pods of Orcas all around us. One pod had at least 13 members.

About mid-day, our captain took us to the Holgate Glacier, where we spent time watching it calve. From there, we slowly headed back to Seward.

We saw lots of cute Harbor Seals and even Stellar's Sea Lions, which are endangered.

Stellar's Sea Lion

Stellar's Sea Lion

Leaving the best for last (right Jared?), the birds! We saw so many wonderful birds on this trip, though Jared grumbles that the Captain could have been better about spotting and stopping for some of the rarer species. Even still, we had some great sightings. Most of you will recognize the puffins: we saw two different species, Horned Puffins and Tufted Puffins. They were a lot smaller than I thought they would be, and they looked comical trying to take off from the water.

  Horned Puffin

 Horned Puffins

 Horned Puffin

 Tufted Puffin

One of our stops, the Chiswell Islands, is particularly good for birds and is a prime nesting spot for several species.

  Black-legged Kittiwakes

 Black-legged Kittiwake

Pigeon Guillemots

 Black Oystercatchers

  Parakeet Auklets

 Parakeet Auklets

Common Murres

After a long, but beautiful day out on the water, we made it back to Seward around 5:30pm. We decided to stop at the grocery store and pick up fixin's for hot dogs and s'mores, since we had a fire pit at our cabin. Great ending to the day (though we needed help from the cabin owner to start the fire, our one moment of shame as city slickers).

Coming up next, our epic hike to the Harding Icefield...

Alaska 2013: Anchorage to Seward (Days 1 and 2)

Our trip officially began on Tuesday, June 25. Jared and I left for Reagan National Airport that morning, all our gear in tow. Our first mistake was trying to haul our heavy suitcases and bags from our apartment to the metro on a hot day. Though we made it, we were a bit sweaty, sore, and cranky by the time we made it to the airport. We soon got over that, once we remembered all of the fun ahead of us!

Our first plane departed around 11:30am, and we had a long layover in Minneapolis. On our flight to Anchorage, we sat next to a man who works at the oil field in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska (very far north, I had to look up where it is). It was fascinating to hear about his life. I specifically picked seats on the right side of the plane, so we could have a good view of the mountains and scenery flying into Anchorage. Unfortunately, it was cloudy most of the trip, so we weren't able to see much. The last 20 minutes before we landed, gorgeous snow covered mountains finally came into view.

We arrived in Anchorage around 8:30pm local time (4 hours behind EST). It was still bright and sunny when we grabbed our rental car and made our way to the Millennium Alaska Hotel Anchorage. I didn't take any pictures of the hotel, but it was a rustic, lodge style place with stuffed critters adorning a large entryway. Our actual room was quite nice, though I was too excited to sleep very well.

The next morning, we left Anchorage to head south along the Seward Highway. Our first stop was the Walmart in Anchorage, to load up on snacks (and bear spray because I'm paranoid), then we were off!

I have to say, this was one of my favorite days, simply because we had beautiful weather and the drive was gorgeous. The combination of ocean, mountains, and lush forests was breathtaking.

Just south of Anchorage is a popular birding spot called Potter Marsh. There is a nice boardwalk with viewing areas of the marsh and forest. We saw several birds and two moose hiding in the grass.

Boardwalk at Potter Marsh

 Birding at Potter Marsh

Two moose hiding in the tall grass

Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern chick

Arctic Terns about to feed one of their chicks

Every couple of miles, there is a turnoff on the Seward Highway where you can stop for photos. One turnoff called Beluga Point is known for its Beluga whale sightings under the right tide conditions. Unfortunately we didn't see any Belugas while we were there, but we did see Dall Sheep high up in the cliffs behind us. Dall Sheep are similar to Mountain Goats, but they have larger horns that may curl into full circles, kind of like Bighorn Sheep.

At Beluga Point, the water is very high in this photo

We decided to take a slight detour off the Seward Highway to visit the Portage Glacier area. We saw several glaciers from the parking lot of the visitor center, then decided to take a short hike to the Byron Glacier. There were lots of mosquitoes on the hike, but it was a nice view of the glacier, and we got to walk through some snow.

Byron Glacier behind us

As we were leaving the parking lot for the Byron Glacier, Jared suddenly braked and yelled "Look at the road!" I was digging through a bag and just had time to glance up and see what we are 95% sure was a lynx cross the road in front of us. We didn't get a good look at it, but it definitely appeared to be catlike (so not a coyote). There's really not much else that it could be. Considering how rare it is to see a lynx, we were very lucky, I'm just disappointed we didn't get a photo!

Next, we decided to stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. I had read many great reviews about it on Trip Advisor, and we had a 2 for 1 coupon. Maybe my expectations were too high, but we were disappointed. It was much smaller than I had pictured, and not many animals were out while we were there. I can see how it would be fun for kids, but for folks like us who see a bunch of animals on our own, it wasn't really worth it. We did see our first brown bears of the trip, though (safely behind a fence).

Two brown bears at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

After that stop, we continued south down the highway to Seward, making several more stops along the way for birds and scenery.

Beautiful wildflowers

Townsend's Warbler

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Red-necked Grebe

Trumpeter Swans with chicks hiding in the grass

I was pretty tired by the end of the day, and we made it to our cabin around dinner time. We stayed just north of Seward in a nice little complex called Alaska Creekside Cabins. The owner described it as "upscale camping". Our cabin was lovely and spacious, and there was a shared bathroom and shower rooms for the cabins on the property.

We stayed in the "Spring" cabin

That evening, we had delicious burgers at a local restaurant and prepared for our early morning boat trip the next day.