Prince WIlliam Sound

After our stay in Seward, it was time to head north again, backtracking toward Anchorage. About two thirds of the way back we took a divert to Whittier as we had a wildlife & glacier cruise booked.

The problem with getting to Whittier is there's a single lane tunnel, and by single I mean one way. What this means is that it's West bound for 30 mins then East bound for 30 mins (in simple terms). To make things worse, the tunnel also has a railway track. It's a bit of a logistics nightmare considering the volume of road/rail freight and tourist traffic through this 4 km tunnel. They seem to have it pretty well under control though. For train nuts, there's a rail motor on one end of the train (below) and a conventional deisel loco on the other. The trains are fairly regular and have a big hand in moving the hoards of cruise ship passengers to Anchorage where they are redistributed to either the airport or elsewhere in Alaska.

After negotiating the tunnel we popped out at Whittier. It's a tinny little town with a big marina & a small container port. The rain was torrential & had been since about half way from Seward. We were already sick of the incessant drizzle & showers, only for it to get heavier & more consistent. Alaska was really starting to get us down.

Despite the weather, we boarded the cruise boat with 150 other tourists and tried to think positive. The cruise took us to another kittywake rookery (above) and then near a salmon farm. The salmon farm is a non-profit organization and its main purpose is to boost the wild salmon populations. The also do scientific research. The salmon had started to run that day and we saw some of them jumping. The predators knew too. The bald eagles were hanging around waiting for easy pickings.

There were also a few otters in the inlet. This guy (above) was just kicking back, cracking shellfish on his belly. It's hard to believe Sea Otters were only recently an endangered species considering how many we saw. And they're so damn cute!

The boat cruise took us close to a few glaciers, but none bigger than Cox Glacier (above). If you look closely you can see one of the larger cruise boats in front Cox Glacier (it's the small dark shape next to the dark island in the centre of shot). It really puts the glacier's shear size into perspective. Unfortunately, the weather made it impossible to take nice photos.

 Our cruise took us up to Surprise Glacier. It was much smaller than Cox Glacier, but by no means less spectacular. The weather wasn't exactly helpful, as you can see by the gear Kerri's wearing, but it backed off enough for us to get a good look. Surprise Glacier is usually pretty active in that chunks of it carve off and fall into the water. Unfortunately it wasn't so co-operative for us. A tiny little chunk fell off, but it wasn't especially spectacular.
Glaciers always have a blue tint to them and this one is a classic example (see below). Apparently the ice is so dense that most light is absorbed in the glacier and it's only the high energy blue part of the spectrum is able to escape again. Hence the blue glaciers. End of science lesson....

The water near the glacier was littered with little (and some bigger) ice bergs.

After a fairly uninspiring cruise for the most part (except for the glacier) the boat was heading back to Whittier when we saw this sight. There were four Bald Eagles fighting over a carcass on a little ice burg. The captain pulled up and let us watch for a bit. It was a rare treat and kind of made up for the poor weather and lack of wildlife (particularly absence of whales).

We didn't hang around in Whittier after the cruise. The rain had started to really hammer down and there's not much to do. So we headed back through the tunnel (after having to wait for the next train to go through), and made our way back to Anchorage for a nice warm shower.

Resurection Bay

Early this morning we set of on a cruise around Resurrection bay. We were on a small boat (run by our lodge) that only carried about 12 people. It seemed like a good idea when I booked it but the weather wasn't kind to us and prevented us heading out to the exposed coastline of Kenai Fjords National Park. The cruise is advertised to run from 7am to 6pm. We were back on dry land by 1pm. What was worse, they gouged us big time for the privilege.
On the positive side, the time we were on the cruise, we saw a heap of cool wildlife and scenery. The weather just made it difficult to head out to the exposed coastline or take nice photos.

Our first animals were otters. we'd probably been under way for 5 minutes before we saw out first one. These two in picture were huddling together to keep warm and I guess being mammals, for comfort. I'm guessing that these two are a mother and an offspring.

During the first part of the cruise, we saw lots of otters. This one was very co-operative. Otters don't have any fur on they're paws or nose and do actually get cold despite living in the icy water all their lives. It explains why you tend to see them laying on their backs with their paws in the air and why this one had his front paws in his mouth.

There's some really beautiful scenery in Resurrection Bay including some steep cliffs and a bunch of waterfalls. The pair above is called Twin Falls. Imagine how pretty this would be without the horrible weather.

ome of the cool scenery even had wildlife on it. This pinnacle was home to a pair of bald eagles. Look for the two white heads on the top peak.

These three mountain goats were cowering on the cliff under a ledge trying to keep out of the rain. This photo isn't that great thanks to the long range, the crappy weather and the rocking boat.

These Harbour Seals were in a cove about as far out of the bay that we could go. They were quite skittish and it meant that we couldn't get that close to them.
You may have noticed by now the brilliant green colour of the water in the photos. The ocean is so rich up there with the cold water welling up from the deep just off the coast. The algae and everything up the food chain thrives and give the water the vibrant colour.

They're technically not Seagulls but they are of the gull family. They're called Kittywakes. This was a rookery at the south east entrance to Resurrection Bay. The white rock in picture is covered in the nesting birds and the air was thick with them like swarm of midges. There were 1000s of the little blighters. Oh and they stink like rotting fish! As do most seabirds.

 Among the 1000s of stinky gulls but higher up on the rocks were nesting tufted puffins. These guys are kind of odd. They fly kind of awkward, but they can dive & swim nearly as well as penguins. By the way, there aren't any penguins this side of the equator. We also saw the larger horned Puffins.

Right next door to the stinky fish beaks were a family of Steller Sea Lions. These guys are pretty big for Sea Lions, particularly the bulls. There's only one bull in each rookery and you don't have to look to hard to find him in this photo. They can weigh up to 1.1 tonnes. Steller Sea Lions are endangered and this particular family has a live video feed back to the Alaska Sea Life Centre so the biologists (and visitors) can study them 24-7.

In case you were wondering, the difference between a Sea Lion and a Seal is one can walk on land (Sea Lion) and one has to flop (Seal). It's all about the Sea Lion being able to use its legs for more than swimming. Simple hey? I only found out for sure when I was in Alaska.

The weather became progressively worse until getting out of the heated cabin of the boat to see wildlife far away through driving rain and icy wind simply wasn't worth the hassle. So it was back to shore and a hot shower.

Alaska Sea Life Centre

Seward is home to the Alaska Sea Life Centre. The main purpose is to rehabilitate injured wildlife, but the general public can visit with the entry fees going toward funding the work. Just about every local marine animal that can be kept in captivity was represented with the exception of the Sea Otter. They had Harbour Seals, Steller Sea Lion bull (above), Tufted Puffins, Horned Puffins, Common Murres, King Eider Ducks, and a bunch of fish, sharks and rays in a series of tanks. It was pretty well done considering how small the facility was. Incidentally, the common Murre is about as close to a penguin as you can find this side of the equator. They can swim and dive nearly as well, but they can still fly.... just. They're even more hopeless in the air than the puffins.

Harbour Seal

Eider Duck

Common Murre

Horned Puffin

Tufted Puffin.

It was nice to see some of the animals up close without being battered by the wind and rain.

Wildlife spotting on the way to Seward

After a weird night that only had a couple hours of dark, we got going early and picked up a hire car. Today we headed for Seward where we are to spend the next two nights. We took advantage of the yummy free muffins at the hotel in Anchorage & stashed them in the car for 'ron (later on). It started overcast like when we'd arrived the previous day, but I thought nothing of it at the time.

Not long into our journey we spotted our first Moose for the day. It was messing around in some swampy ground between the highway and the railway tracks.

Our first moose was a bull and being early in the season, his antlers hadn't grown much. It was still a moose. Tick.

On the way down to Seward we took a short divert along Kenai Lake (above) and the Kenai River. My hope was that the salmon run had started and we would catch sight of a bear or two fishing. Unfortunately, no go. We did, however, see more moose. At Cooper Landing, twice we saw a moose cow with twin calves next to the river. It wasn't bears, but it was still pretty cool. The calves in the shot below are no more than a couple of days old.

After Cooper Landing we back tracked back to the Seward Highway, then headed roughly south through a number of interesting mountain passes. Unfortunately, the further south we went, the heavier the rain fell.

About the last point of interest before arriving in Seward is the Exit Glacier (above). It's a bit of a divert from the main road, but worth the drive (there's not much else to do in Seaward). It's one of many glaciers that run off the Harding Ice Field on the Kenai Peninsular.

Seward

Seward is an odd place. It has a strange mix of industry and tourism that makes for a somewhat strange looking seaside town/port.

The day cruise boat above is one of probably 8 that are lined up side by side behind this one and it soon became obvious why there were so many in such a seemingly isolated part of the planet. The cruise liners are in and out of Seward non stop in summer (lucky we are here a couple of weeks before it gets really busy).

It's apparent that the Cruise ship arrives early in the morning, disgorges it's passengers onto the day boats, loads up a new load of passengers and takes off in the afternoon. Totally not my scene. I can't imagine anything worse than being herded around with 4,000 other sheep.
Seward is also a major port for Alaska because it's the only port in the state that doesn't freeze over in winter. Consequently it's a fairly substantial commercial and military shipping port as well. There's even a coal loader.
There's also a maximum security prison a couple of kms from the main township on the other side of the bay (behind the cruise ship).

We were booked into the Alaska Saltwater Lodge on Point Loma, which is a couple of kilometres south of the main town of Seward. The road/muddy track to Point Loma (above) skirts along Resurrection bay. It was along the track that we saw our first sea otter. It was going about its business not 10m from the shore (& road).

We were so excited! We'd figured we'd maybe see one during one of the boat cruises we'd booked. It wouldn't be the last sighting either. There were a pair of them that seemed to like to hunt right in front of our lodge. [Edit:] We saw them every afternoon about the same time (high tide).

The less said about the Alaska Saltwater Lodge the better. Suffice to say that for $180 per night it was nothing but a very average B&B. The only advantage was the wildlife that seemed attracted to the area. First it was the otters, then it was a bald eagle (below). This one liked the high perch in the tree just outside our room.

Anchorage

Today, after much planning & months of anticipation, we finally arrived in Alaska.
We are only going to scratch the surface while we were here & unfortunately it is the well beaten tourist path. Most of the state is so inaccessible that you don't really have a choice. Looking at the map below, we will follow the blue path from Seward to Fairbanks for the most part.
Our main stops in order are; Anchorage, Seward (Resurrection Bay), Whittier (Prince William Sound), Anchorage, Denali National Park, Fairbanks.

So this morning we jumped on one of Air Canada's awesome little Brazilian built Embraer ERJ-190  jets (above) to Vancouver & then an Airbus A319 to Anchorage.
We arrived a little after midday giving us enough time to grab something to eat & have a bit of a look around the city. It's nothing special & is a bit of a tourist trap (like Banff) in that there are a couple of streets full of gift shops. The restaurants were set up to gouge tourist as well, but we caught a hot tip to go to a place called Humpy's which is basically a uni pub. The food was really nice & the service good. As usual it's a good plan to get off the tourist trail.

Forgetmenot Ponds

Today we returned to the Forgetmenot Ponds hoping that the ice sheet that was there had melted off. We were in luck with the pond nice and still as well.

Time to pull out the camera and tripod for some photography practice. There's still a lot of snow on the ranges which is much nicer than the dusty grey that we saw in the middle of summer last year.

It wasn't the most spectacular day trip but it got us out of the house for the day. That's very important after a very long winter trapped inside.