Kodiak Island Boat Tour

Our first full day on Kodiak Island had us up early (for us, 6:30 is early) and off on an 8:00 AM boat tour to Whale Passage. The weather did not bode well right out of the box, as it was very cloudy, foggy, and rainy as we headed to the boat harbor from our B&B. Most of the stuff we would be looking at would be down near the water, and we brought our rain gear, so it did not matter that much, but we would like to have some sun shine to help us get great pictures. Well, at least the water was not too rough, as we would be going mostly through sheltered areas, and the rain let up shortly after we got out onto the Gulf of Alaska.

Soon we were seeing sea birds, kittiwakes, puffins, and pigeon guillemots and were snapping up a storm. I thought that Ken, one of our traveling companions, had super photographic equipment, but two of the guys who came with us on the boat had Nikon D3s and two huge 200-400mm zoom lenses. They spent most of the trip sitting on the bow of the boat and, from the sounds of the shutters, probably took more than 2000 photos each. I thought I came back with a lot at 640. The boat’s captain was pretty good at being able to stealth up on the sea birds, so we were able to get closer than we had on other sight seeing trips. Also, this trip was just for this purpose, where as the others we had taken were mostly to see glaciers, so ocean life photos were just lucky.

As we got out into Whale Passage, the sky actually started to lighten up and we even got to see some blue sky off in the distance and the sun peeked through at us briefly. Strangely enough, although we were in Whale Passage, there were no whales sighted until we started out. Then we did spot one Humpback making its way slowly along the mouth of the passage and feeding lazily. It would float on the surface for a bit and then flute gently for a deeper dive. It did make some rolling motions later on and show its pectoral fins and slap its tail once.

We also saw some Dall’s Porpoises. We had seen them briefly on other tours but this group followed the boat longer than any of the other times. They are very difficult to catch on films as much more than a brief flash of black and white and a splash. Geoff took some video of them and then just pointed the camera over the side and took dozens of pictures as fast as the camera would take them. These are the best.

The stars of the show were the Sea Otters. We caught up with a large raft of them around a small rock island in the middle of Whale Passage and stayed with them for some time. They mostly seemed to be just relaxing and floating. We did not see much eating going on and we did not see any pups.

Finally, when we got back to the harbor, we visited with the Sea Lions who have taken over one of the docks there. They were a little vocal as we cruised around the dock but for the most part, they did not mind our passage. As we exited the boat and walked down the dock, the rain started coming down again. We went to dinner with Ken and Martha and then bid them a fun journey on their next adventure. They are off to the Katmai Peninsula for an expensive tour to see the Kodiak Bears feeding on salmon. We are staying in our B&B, relaxing, and we will go around the island to see whatever there is to see. If anything exciting happens, you will be able to read it here in a later post.

Seward’s Rainy Side

After a good start to our time in Seward, the weather turned miserable again. We were there for 5 days total, and 3 of them were pretty much rain. We did a couple of indoor things, but mostly just stayed in the RV. From Seward, we move on down the Kenai Peninsula to Soldotna and then on to Homer.

The one indoor thing we enjoyed in Seward was the Alaska Sea Life Center. Here they not only have aquariums with nice examples of Alaska sea life, but also rehabilitate injured marine mammals and birds, and return those to the wild that they can. We took their Behind the Scenes tour, which took us into their rehabilitation areas and showed us their labs and tracking center. And of course we had to make a visit to their sea bird enclosure and visit with the Puffins.

We tried to get out and see some of the far reaching areas of the Seward area. On the far side of Resurrection Bay is a repair facility for ships. It also looks like a bone yard for old ships which didn’t quite make it to repaired status.

We also investigated the northern side of the bay, south of Seward and found, not much. There is an RV park way out there, and some houses, but not much else. However, on the way back, we found a sea otter munching away happily on what appeared to be an octopus. It looked to be a very chewy meal.

Alaskan Fjords

Finally the weather has turned our way, at least for a while. We arrived in  in Seward, Alaska, under blue skies, and headed out on a cruise to the Northwestern Fjord and its spectacular glaciers. This was an 8 hour boat ride, filled with views of humpback whales, orcas, stellar sea lions, harbor seals, puffins, gulls, and other sea birds. Except for some foggy areas where we got closest to the Pacific Ocean, we had clear weather and sun the whole time. While on that cruise, we booked another one for our second day here. Sadly, the weather did not hold up on the second day, but the glacier we visited was actively “calving” while we were there. The activity is hard to capture on film, since you are bouncing around on a boat and it is very hard to anticipate. On top of it all, one part which had been quite active while we were there, decided to totally let loose as we were leaving and I was not able to get any video. It was quite something to see though.

Below are the best of the pictures I did get on our two days of cruising.

The Sun Comes Out In Girdwood

On Sunday, July 15, when we drove from Anchorage to Girdwood, down the Turnagain Arm of Prince William Sound, we were not happy campers. The rain was coming down pretty hard in Anchorage in the morning and we had to slog through a pretty big puddle right outside our RV to get ready to get on the road. The weather was a continuation of the rainy, overcast, yuk we had been stuck in since we left Fairbanks. We had been seeing weather predictions showing slight clearings, but nothing seemed to want to materialize. So on Monday morning, when we woke up to no rain and a bright spot in the sky, we made plans to get out and see what would happen.

We started small, going to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. They take in injured and otherwise endangered animals and give them a new lease on life. It is kind of anti-climactic to see these animals in captivity after seeing others of the same in the wild. It was fun to watch the brown bears playing in the pond but after seeing a mama with four cubs in the wild, it loses some of its impact. Of course we were able to get much closer to some of the animals, like the elk and moose, than we have so far in our travels.

When we left there, the sky was clearing quite a bit, so we went back to the RVs for lunch and then headed down the Portage Glacier Highway towards Whittier. We made a short stop at Portage Lake, somewhere we had been the day before, but the weather was windy and rainy then. Now it is clear and calm and there are ice flows in the lake so a photo op beckoned. Then we headed on toward Whittier, which required us to go through a one-way tunnel that the cars share with the Alaska Railroad. Until 2000, the only way to Whittier over land was by the train, but they modified the tunnel to allow cars and trucks to make the trip. There was a toll and we had to wait 40 minutes for our turn to go towards Whittier. Now the weather can be totally different on each side of the mountain, but on this day we lucked out because it was as nice on the Whittier side as on the Portage Lake side.

Whittier is very small and not much more than a sea port. Most of the people who live there live in a large concrete bunker style 14-story building. We walked inside on the first floor and it was pretty depressing. It looked very institutional. I think not too many people live here year round. The woman at the tour building we stopped in said they had 42 feet of snow on the ground this past winter. That’s not the amount that fell, but how much was on the ground at the height of the winter. That means the lower 4 stories of the main apartment building there were under the snow. Ouch!

As good as the weather was on Monday, Tuesday turned out to trump it. Both days started with some overcast and cleared slowly, but on Tuesday it cleared to an almost cloudless sky. We decided not to go back to Whittier, which our traveling companions did do, but to stay and go on the Portage Lake cruise to the Portage Glacier. We rode our bikes down the mile and a half trail to the lake and then another mile to the cruise port. The Portage Glacier used to completely cover the area which is now Portage Lake as recently as 1900, but now the glacier has receded far enough to not be viewable from the Visitor’s Center. However, there is a cruise to be taken which goes right up to the face of the glacier and, on as clear a day as we had on Tuesday, this was quite an experience. The tour people said it is rare to be able to see the top of the glacier but we had that view and more.

After the cruise, rode to the Byron Glacier Trail Head and walked the 0.8 miles to the end of the glacier. We could only get as close as the snow field at the end of the glacier but it was a nice walk and a beautiful view. There are actually many glaciers in this area. I think we counted about eight of them just on this side of the mountain from Whittier. Geoff feels like he is a short-term memory photographer. Each time he takes a photo and looks down and then back up, he thinks “Wow, that would be a nice picture”, and he ends up with several that are very close to being the same.

Our next stop is Seward on Resurrection Bay. The weather predictions for the next two days are looking good right now. We are hoping they hold up as well as they have for these past two days. The trip from here to Seward is supposed to be spectacular scenery, if the weather is good. We could take a long time to drive those 80 miles if we are stopping every couple of miles to say “Wow, that would be a nice picture”.