Seward is the gateway to the Kenai Fjords National Park. Because the park is entirely on water, day cruising the most popular way to experience the park. There are two main companies that take you on cruises, and I had read that the 6 hour cruise that takes you into the national park (vs into just the bay) is the best one to take. So, we were booked on the 11:30AM Kenai Fjords Tours National Park cruise.
We went to the Cruise Port in Seward, and checked into our Cruise.
Eagerly waiting to board the cruise…
As soon as the boat left the dock, we were greeted by some friendly sea otters. The highlight of this cruise was not just the scenery, but also the marine wildlife, and we were already getting a glimpse of that.
The scenery on the fjords was spectacular!
Next up were some whales that started circling our boat…
And, then, we went by a sea lion colony…
Onto some seals basking in the sun…
The boat cruised by the Harding Icefield.
The boat then went close to the Alaik Glacier, one of the many glaciers seen in the Kenai Fjords.
The boat paused in front of the glacier for around 30 minutes, when we could hear chunks of ice falling off the face of the glacier. Thankfully, we were not so close that we would be impacted by the waves caused. Several chunks of ice were floating by the boat, and we could pick some up and take pictures with it. Pictures with thousand year old ice!
There were several kayakers visiting the glacier themselves.
Scenery along the fjords…
We also spotted several birds, including puffins on the cruise, but I could not get good pictures of them. The cruise ended around 6pm, dropping us off at the dock once again.
We decided to walk along the Seward walkway back to our hotel, since it was lovely outside. The walkway is paved all along the coast, and offers gorgeous views of the mountains on one side, and parked trailers and families on the other.
On the walk, we found a cute playground that V loved. Best playground views ever!
Back in our hotel, a yummy Indian meal was in order again!