Days: 73-77
Mile: 6698
On day 74 we drove to Homer, but before I tell you about Homer, I want to share our last adventure in Seward; the Kenai Fjords National Park.
On day 73 of our trip, we left the marina in Seward at 9:30 am for a 7.5 hour boat tour. It was a rainy cold day on shore and even colder on the water, but as you can see, the scenery was beautiful.
The tour company promised wildlife and glaciers; we saw lots of both. This is when you wish you had a good camera with a telephoto lens. Catching wildlife on an iPhone was almost impossible, however, I did get this photo of humpback whales feeding. The technique is called bubble netting. The whales dive down and expel air around a school of fish, creating a net of bubbles. Then all the whales come to the top with their mouths open and scoop up the catch. We watched the whales doing this for almost an hour. It was amazing. The crew turned off the boat motor and dropped a hydrophone, with an output to the boat speakers, so we could hear what was going on underwater. The sound of the whales singing to one another brought tears to our eyes as we stood in the pouring rain and thanked the universe for such a magical moment.
Can you see the sea lions on the rocks in this photo?
In addition to humpback whales, we saw a large pod of orcas. We followed along side the pod for several miles and watched them surface, jump and dive. (No photos of the orcas.) We saw sea otters, mountain goats, puffins and bald eagles. (Some photos but nothing worth sharing.)
We also saw several glaciers. Not much to say here except it was spectacular in every way, including the “popping and moaning” of the glacier as it slowly moves into the sea.
The crew gathered up some glacier ice and made drinks for the trip back to the marina.
Today, we are in Homer, on the Homer Spit. I took this photo as we were driving in to Homer. Our campsite is marked with an arrow. The spit is a very narrow piece of land that sticks out into Kachemak Bay from the town of Homer. It was left behind when a glacier receded.
We have much to explore in Homer and will take a charter fishing trip before we leave. More to come from Homer in my next post. Here are a few photos from our campsite at low tide.
Comments
4 responses to “Kenai Fjords National Park”
Absolutely breathtaking. The thought of all that cold rainy weather makes my bones hurt. But so worth it
Oh my goodness, this is AMAZING, Annie!! An experience I will probably never be able to appreciate 1st hand, so I am so grateful for your documentation if it. Kind of an armchair travel series. Thank you so much! Can’t wait to see you again. ❤️
What a great experience! The memories of your boat tour are amazing!
I will never ever forget the smell of the glacial ice melting near us. It was a sentinel experience. Our crew did not make a glacial ice drinks though – what a great idea. Did the ice have a distinctive taste or scent – just curious.