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.