Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska - July 2016

Kenai Fjords National Park covers 1,047 square miles of a portion of the east side of the Kenai Peninsula and off-shore islands. 51% of Kenai Fjords NP is covered by ice (at least it was then) because it contains a portion of the Harding Icefield, which receives 60 feet of snow each year, and has created up to 40 glaciers. The fjords are glacial valleys created by the glaciers and submerged below the ocean by rising seas and land subsidence. We drove into Seward and set out at 9:00 a.m. on the Major Marine 8.5 hour Northwestern Fjord Cruise, the cruise that went furthest into the NP. The cruise started in Seward which is at the head of Resurrection Bay, which is about 18 miles long and up to 5 miles wide. About 35 miles south of Seward we stopped briefly off the Chiswell Islands to see a small rookery of endangered Steller sea lions. The Chiswell Islands are uninhabited and part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. They provide nesting sites for horned puffins, tufted puffins, black-legged kittiwakes and various auklets. From the Chiswell Islands we went through Dora Passage and then northwest up the Granite Passage, between Granite Island and Harris Peninsula, into Harris Bay, then Northwestern Fjord and at the end of it, Northwestern Glacier. Northwestern Glacier extends 7.4 miles from the Harding Icefield on the southeastern side to the Northwestern Fjord. We also stopped to view Ogive Glacier, on the western shore of Northwestern Fjord, south of Northwestern Glacier. We also stopped to view Anchor Glacier on the western shore of Northwestern Fjord at the head of Harris Bay, further south of Ogive Glacer. On the way back we mostly followed the same route, except a little eastward, more out into the Gulf of Alaska and we got caught in heavy 8 and 9 foot swells which had the boat really rocking. About a third of the passengers got really sick. We got back about 5:30 p.m.

We saw bald eagles; sea otters; harbor seals near the western edge of Resurrection Bay and floating on ice beyond Northwestern Glacier and throughout Northwestern Fjord; mountain goats on the steep western side of Resurrection Bay; humpback whales; horned puffins; tufted puffins; Steller sea lions basking on the rocks of the Chiswell Islands; and lots of amazing blue ice on the magnificent glaciers.

Publicado el agosto 1, 2022 12:27 MAÑANA por rwcannon57