Day 2 of 2020 Alaska Trip, Kenai Fjords Tour

Second day of our Alaska trip. We would be touring Kenai Fjords by boat for the day.

Aialik Glacier


Aialik Glacier

For our two days at Seward, we planned to spend them between hiking Harding Ice Trail and taking a boat tour of Kenai Fjords. Unfortunately, weather forecast indicated two rainy days, with the next day marginally better than today, so we put hiking to the next day with better weather, and did the boat tour today. (They turned out to be equally drizzly.)

Tour Choice

The two major tour companies for Kenai Fjords are Major Marine Tours and Kenai Fjords Tours. The former offered cheaper prices (for 2020) and the latter had fancier websites. I bet the experiences were really similar between the two, with their boats following each other throughout most of the tour (I would even hazard a guess that both captains were sharing wildlife locations throughout the tour, for the common good of customer experience for all.) Except that we went with the cheaper Major Marine and found our boat had three decks compared with two from Kenai Fjords Tours.

Other Tour Boat

 Other Tour Boat
Other Tour Boat
We followed each other throughout the day.

As for the route, the two popular day-tour routes were “National Park Tour” and “Northwest Kenai Fjords Tour”. After rounding Aialik Cape, “National Park Tour” headed North, to either Holgate Glacier or Aialik Glacier (depending on weather, but Aialik seemed to be preference as one got a distant view of Holgate Glacier on the way to Aialik), while “Northwest Tour” headed farther west to Northwest Glacier. At the end of either tour, one would be able to view some glaciers up close, with the “Northwest Tour” featuring more rocky islands as a typical fjord scene.
For the year 2020, Major Marine Tours operated 1 daily “National Park” and 1 daily “Northwest”, while Kenai Fjords Tours operated 2 daily “National Park” (let’s talk about anti-trust). Since “Northwest” was much more expensive than “National Park” from Major Marine, we picked the latter, which lasted 6 hours.

And since there would be lots of wildlife shots in rainy condition, I wisely packed my Sigma 70-200 F2.8 lens.

Seward Harbor

Our tour departed at 11:30 in the morning, in time for the train from Anchorage to arrive at 11am. The tour company “required” everyone to check in one hour in advance, so that they could generate some souvenir sales while everyone’s waiting around. To kill the time, I did an aerial tour of Seward Harbor with my drone.


Overlooking Seward Harbor


Overlooking Seward Harbor

Kenai Fjords Boat Tour

Boarding Tour Boat


Boarding Tour Boat

Boarding started at 11am, for a ship that held 150+ people but only 65 guests and 4 crew for the day. There was ample room onboard, but I would say the company weren’t most rigorous when it came to enforcing mask wearing.

Seward Harbor

 Seward Harbor
Seward Harbor

Boats in Seward Harbor

 Boats in Seward Harbor
Boats in Seward Harbor Boats in Seward Harbor
Boats in Seward Harbor

Tour Boats in Seward Harbor

 Tour Boats in Seward Harbor
Tour Boats in Seward Harbor

With COVID, the tour companies were reducing their capacities, leaving lots of boats to storage like this.

Resurrection Bay


Resurrection Bay
A fisherman leaving port.

Coal Loading Conveyor Belt

 Coal Loading Conveyor Belt
Coal Loading Conveyor Belt

That for decades helped load export of coal from Usibelli Coal Mine near Healy, transported to Seward by rail. The facility closed in 2016 after decline in mine output.

Mountains by Seward

 Mountains by Seward
Mountains by Seward
Marathon Mountain and Bear Mountain

Glacier

 Glacier
Glacier

As we travelled South along Resurrection Bay, a few glaciers to the east came into view.

Glaciers

 Glaciers
Glaciers

From left to right, Prospect, Spoon and Porcupine Glaciers. These three glaciers were situated right next to each other.

Spoon Glacier

 Prospect Glacier
Spoon and Prospect Glacier

Birds

For the first 45 minutes of the tour, we didn’t run into any wildlife, except for birds. So I will post all the bird shots of the day here.

Birds

 Birds
Birds
Birds

Post Hunting


Post Hunting

The closest bird that I captured for the day. It seemed to me that the bird was carrying some weed/hay instead of more edible food.

Ducks


Ducks

Birds on Rock

 Birds on Rock
Birds on Rock

Impending Clouds

 Impending Clouds
Impending Clouds

Rugged Island and Otters

After that, we came across an island, called uncreatively “Rugged Island” for its rugged coastline. There, our binoculars-wielding captain spotted a bald eagle resting on a rock, together with a group of otters playing in coastal waters.

Rugged Island

 Rugged Island
Rugged Island Rugged Island
Rugged Island

Rocky Shore

 Rocky Shore
Rocky Shore

Bald Eagle on Rock


Bald Eagle on Rock
Standing gallantly on top of a distant rock. Cropped to 470mm equivalent but still felt tiny.

Otter


Otter
The one in the lower-left seemed to notice our presence.

Since the otters were our first major wildlife encounter of the day, we spent about 10 minutes watching them bathing in water.

Islands

 Islands
Islands Islands
Islands

Mountains

 Mountains
Mountains Mountains
Mountains

Bunker on Rugged Island


Bunker on Rugged Island
Remanent of Cold War.

Soon after leaving Rugged Island, Bear Glacier came into distant view. It’s actually offered the most expansive view of all glaciers we saw for the day. Unfortunately, it fed into a lake, so a tour boat couldn’t reach it up close. Otherwise, the tour companies could save a lot on fuel as it’s much closer to Seward than typical destinations of “National Park” or “Northwest” tours.

Bear Glacier


Bear Glacier
Bear Glacier

Barwell Island

 Barwell Island
Barwell Island
With cold war bunkers occupying top of the hill.

Fisherman at Sea

 Fisherman at Sea
Fisherman at Sea

Fishing Boats

 Fishing Boats
Fishing Boats

The waters of Resurrection Bay turned out to be a popular fishing destination. This must be a popular local pastime as we passed a number of fishing boats throughout the day.

Rugged Island


Rugged Island

Cave along Rugged Island


Cave along Rugged Island
Lots of birds seemed to find habitat there.

Rolling Clouds over Glaciers


Rolling Clouds over Glaciers

Bear Glacier


Bear Glacier
Bear Glacier

Aialik Cape

After that, we were approaching Aialik Cape, a series of rocks and skerries separating Resurrection Bay from Aialik Bay.

No Name Island

 Rocks
Islands and Rocks
Typical scene along Kenai Fjords.

Aialik Cape


Aialik Cape Aialik Cape
Aialik Cape
Aialik Cape

Small Islands

 Small Islands
Small Islands Small Islands
Small Islands

Distant Island


Distant Island
Likely Natoa Island.

At this point, we were supposed to turn North towards Aialik Glacier. But, our captain with his amazing eyesight spotted a humpback in a distant channel, between Harbor Island and Natoa Island.

Rainy Channel

 Rainy Channel
Rainy Channel

It’s also when, for the only time of the day, the on-and-off drizzle turned into a steady rain. Unfortunately, we waited in the channel for 5 minutes, and that illusive humpback never surfaced again.

Orca

After that, lunch services began onboard, while we headed farther south-west in search of wildlife. Just as everyone was waiting out the rain while enjoying lunch, our captain spotted a few orcas.
Then there were more orcas.
Which turned into an orca-spree for 40 minutes, by which time we had to move on to Aialik to make sure the tour didn’t go overtime.

That’s when I heard gloomy and drizzly days like this were actually better for whale-watching as they tended to stay closer to surface.
Who could believe I took more than 400 photos during this time. Here are the best of them:
Orca

 Orca Orca
Orca
Orca Orca
Orca Orca
Orca

Orca


Orca Orca
Orca Orca
Orca
Orca

And here are some footages that I took. Please excuse the shakiness of camera as these footages were captured on a boat in open sea, with camera (mostly) running 150+mm.

Aialik Bay

It’s past 2pm by the time we left the group of orcas. We made haste up Aialik for more glacier-viewing.

First, we were greeted with portions of Holgate Glacier on mountains. Crowned by clouds, their mesmerizing aqua color and the emerald forests beneath were such emblems to the state of Alaska.

Glaciers


Glaciers Glaciers
Glaciers Glaciers
Glaciers
Part of Holgate Glacier, on mountains.

After that, Holgate Glacier emerged in the distance.

Holgate Glacier


Holgate Glacier

Mountains


Mountains
Mountains Mountains
Mountains
Tooth Cove

Mountains

 Mountains
Mountains Mountains
Mountains

Pederson Glacier


Pederson Glacier
Pederson Glacier

Mountains


Mountains
Abra Cove

Edges of Bear Glacier on Hill


Bear Glacier
Bear Glacier
Portions of it just popping over the mountain, visible from Aialik Glacier.

Aialik Glacier

Just before 3pm, Aialik Glacier emerged from behind the mountains.

Distant Aialik Glacier

 Distant Aialik Glacier
Distant Aialik Glacier

Aialik Glacier


Aialik Glacier
Aialik Glacier

Aialik Glacier

 Aialik Glacier
Aialik Glacier Aialik Glacier
Aialik Glacier

Right next to Aialik Glacier, there was an area of floating ice. Lots of seals were resting on the ice.

Floating Ice

 Floating Ice
Floating Ice

Seal

 Seals
Seals Seals
Seals

Seals


Seals
Glacier calving in the background.

It’s a humbling experience to be this close to a tidewater glacier, as its constant rumble from cracking ice were the most pervading sign of its compelling presence. At times, that calving happened right in front of our eyes, serving both the visual treat and warning.

Aialik Glacier Calving

 Aialik Glacier Calving
Aialik Glacier Calving
Aialik Glacier Calving Aialik Glacier Calving
Aialik Glacier Calving
Aialik Glacier Calving

Aialik Glacier


Aialik Glacier Aialik Glacier
Aialik Glacier

Creek from Glacier


Creek from Glacier

Aialik Glacier


Aialik Glacier
Aialik Glacier

Other Tour Boat

 Other Tour Boat
Other Tour Boat

Ice Fishing


Ice Fishing

Here’s something unexpected. Crew from both tour boats retrieved a piece of floating ice with fishing net. At first I thought that was a souvenir for the guests. After leaving Aialik Glacier, the onboard bartender made an announcement, that they chopped down the retrieved floating ice, and were making “Glacier XXX” (“XXX being the name of a cocktail) with it, claiming that’s most authentic. The entire cabin immediately lit up.

Mountains

 Mountains
Mountains

Rolling Clouds


Rolling Clouds

Island

 Island
Island

Chat Island


Chat Island

Seals

After leaving Aialik Glacier, our captain went back to wildlife-hunting mode. Lucky us, he found a group of seals lying on a series of skerries. (They were certainly the laziest animals that we’d seen for the day.)

Rocks

 Rocks
Rocks
With lots of birds resting on them.

Birds on Rock

 Birds on Rock
Birds on Rock

Seals


Seals
Seals

Humpback

Just as we were rounding Rugged Island on our way back, our captain made the big announcement that he spotted (or got alerted by a nearby fishing boat) a humpback in the waters. So we slowed down, waited, and captured this moment of its surfacing.

Humpback


Humpback

Unfortunately, this sighting put us slightly behind schedule, and we couldn’t stay behind for this humpback any longer. So we said goodbye to it and raced back to port.

Lowell Point


Lowell Point
A small village detached from Seward by a gravel road.

Seward Waterfront


Seward Waterfront
A small town in tranquility.

Eagle

As we were entering Seward Harbor, our captain informed us about a bald eagle resting in the harbor.

Eagle


Eagle

Eagle Taking Flight

 Eagle Taking Flight
Eagle Taking Flight

The eagle’s probably alerted by our passing, and quickly took off, only to land on the opposite side of our boat.

Eagle

 Eagle Eagle
Eagle Eagle Eagle
Eagle

At 5:40pm, we were back at Seward Harbor, concluding a wonderful day of touring Kenai Fjords.

It certainly went beyond my expectations. The Aialik Glacier was magnificent, the wildlife we saw for the day were more diverse and abundant than our wildest hope. Apart from lapses in enforcing masks (I wore a 3M 9502 for the day and there was severe condensation in such cold weather), the crew had been friendly and helpful (I noticed the windows were much dirtier in the afternoon than morning, which meant they must be cleaned every night).

After that, we headed for a seafood dinner. A fitting end to a phenomenal day.

Dinner

 Dinner
Dinner

END

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Day 2 of 2020 Alaska Trip, Kenai Fjords Tour by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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