Here's a map of our route.
We left from the docks in downtown Seward and motored out into Resurrection Bay.
While it wasn't sunny, the water was glassy and the views of the mountains surrounding Resurrection Bay were beautiful.
We hadn't been motoring long at all when we spotted a sea otter right next to the boat.
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After he had posed for us a while he began to do sideways somersaults in the water. It turns out they do this to both wash their fur and to get air bubbles in it to increase it's insulating ability.
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Off to the east of Resurrection Bay you could see the Godwin Glacier.
We had a female captain (blonde and very good looking) who had many years of experience spotting wildlife. We hadn't been out for even an hour when she slowed and directed our attention to a whale blow. If you look carefully you can see the fin of the whale along the water line and the blow in front of the rock face on the hillside.
Everyone went out on deck (along with the Kenai Fjords National Park Ranger who narrates the cruise) to watch. It turned out to be a humpback whale and her calf.
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She'd blow, surface and then dive and disappear for several minutes. And every once in a while she'd breach which was a big thrill.
They only allow the tour boats to stay with a particular whale or group of whales for 20 minutes. Then you have to move on.
We got a closer view of the Godwin Glacier with a little sun break as we motored on.
We motored along some steep cliff sides that had lots of small waterfalls coming straight down. The water really was that amazing emerald color.
Up along the base of the cliff someone spotted mountain goats.
They hang out here because it keeps the kids safe since no predators can get down to the waterline like the goats can. The males and females both have horns.
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We came around Cain's Head and got our first view of Bear Glacier which is one of the bigger glaciers feeding off of the Harding Ice Field in Kenai Fjords National Park. It used to be a tidewater glacier but it has retreated so that it now empties into a lake formed by a gravel it left behind.
As we motored along we attracted a group of Dall's porpoises who played in our bow wake. To photograph them you have to lean out over the side of the bow.
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They like the break the surface and make waves too.
We threaded our way through a group of islands out to Aialik Cape and a series of wonderful sea spires.
This was a pretty enough area that you'd think that they brought you out here just to see the sea spires but no, there are horned puffins here!
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We got a couple more views of the sea spires as we left the area. I'm always amazed at Mother Nature's persistence in the form of trees and bushes that grow on pure rock.
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I turned around as the boat powered up and took this photo of Aialik Cape.
We were just settling down to wait for our turn for lunch when our captain spotted a group of humpback whales. At first all we spied was a blow and a bit of back.
Then a blow and a bit of tail.
Then they put on a great show where I got lots of tail shots.
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Then wonders of wonders they began to bubble-net fish. This is a cooperative behavior where they take big breathes and then as a group let go of the bubbles to net a school of fish and then they open their mouths as they surface and catch the fish. There's only one group of humpbacks in Kenai Fjords who do this and we lucked out and got to see them do their thing.
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Just when I thought that I'd get to have lunch we spotted a pod of orcas. They didn't do any gymnastics for us but we got to watch them for quite a while.
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We also got a view of a small flock of Kittlizt's murrelets, a species that is about to be listed as endangered.
We finally got to eat lunch while we motored across Aialik Bay and down Holgate Arm. There were more waterfalls coming down the faces of the fjord.
And then we began to get views of the Holgate Glacier.
This is a true tidewater glacier in that it empties into the ocean which means Holgate Arm, the fjord that it has formed over the years. It is full of ice bergs.
As you get closer to the glacier itself you can see Surprise Glacier, which is really just an arm of the Holgate Glacier. It's called Surprise because you can't see it until you get up pretty close to the main portion of the glacier and then surprise it's there on your left.
The face of Holgate Glacier is really pretty spectacular.
But the top is even better.
There were seals lounging on the ice bergs in front of the glacier.
I liked the Surprise Glacier so much I had Walter take a photo of me in front of it. As you can see, even with the sun out it was not warm! I had a winter hat on under my hood.
They fished some of the glacial ice out of the water and let people play with it. Here's Walter and a piece of it. Note the winter hat!
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We saw another sea otter out floating in amongst the ice. That just goes to show how effective their fur coats are.
We came out of Holgate Arm into Aialik Bay and headed north deep into the bay to see Aialik Glacier.
As we got closer we spotted another group of sea otters. Some of them were getting pretty friendly...
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The toe of Aialik Glacier is much bigger than Holgate's toe so it makes for a much more impressive view.
Here's a panorama shot that gives you a taste of the setting too.
Here's a close-up panorama of the face of the glacier.
Not long after I took this shot I heard a loud cracking noise and I pointed my camera at the face and started clicking away.
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It was a quite a thrill both to experience and to get photos of.
Here's a piece of ice berg from a calving several days before. It was bigger than our boat.
After a nice long stay at Aialik Glacier we motored on back towards Seward. You'd think that at this point the cruise was about over, huh? But no, we had the Stellar Sea Lions (another endangered species) to visit.
A few of them were moving around but otherwise it was clearly naptime.
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There were huge numbers of common murres in the water.
In case you can't tell, they're diving birds.
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There were hundreds of kittiwakes and periodically they'd get stirred up and take off.
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The kittiwakes build their nests perched on tiny ledges on the rocks.
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There were also more puffins in this area. In fact we got to see something rather unusual as there were puffins sitting way up on the cliff. According to the ranger, this was unusual since they're usually only seen in the water. I love the shot of the two of them peering out from the crack.
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At the end of this rocky section there were common murres nesting. They look like penguins when they're out of the water but they're not even closely related to them. It's just the white breast along with the black back and head that makes them look that way.
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From here we motored back to the marina in Seward, tired but very very happy.
In Part XXI we'll take you to the Alaska Sea Life Center and out to the Exit Glacier, the only part of Kenai Fjords National Park that you can drive to.