The highlight of the Kenai Peninsula is taking a six-hour boat tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park from Seward, its gateway. The opportunity to get out on the water and experience the deep, steep-walled inlets gouged out by ancient glaciers was something Steven and I had been looking forward to once we booked our Alaska cruise from Vancouver.
Steven on the left, battling the elements:
On a clearer day, I'm sure the sights would have been stupendous as the boat made its way south along Resurrection Bay toward several islands in the Gulf of Alaska in the national park.
Because of the overcast skies, there was the barest hint of bluish-green in the water to know that this wasn't a black-and-white photo!
Our guide told us that the otters were part of the weasel family and that they had the thickest fur of any animal on the planet. Their fur was so highly prized that it was even more valuable than gold.
Several times, our cruise boat intentionally slowed down for the kayakers so it wouldn't cause a wake.
I couldn't have told you that it was a humpback whale that had gotten close to the boat because of all the barnacles!
Holgate Glacier:
Ours was the first boat in the fjord that season. I don't know whether that was a plus or a negative, mind you.
Coastal mountain goats clambering on the cliffs:
I must have misunderstood the guide, because he mentioned that this glacier was moving downhill at 20 feet a day, yet it wasn't advancing. Surely, his statements contradicted each other?
A towering wall of rock, with several waterfalls, amazed us.
Look closely at the bottom middle of the picture, and you'll see the spray following a massive chunk of ice that had calved from the Ailalik Glacier!
The Steller seal lions looked like they were enjoying life! The males weighed 2500 pounds each.
In a foreshadowing of what we heard this past summer in Greenland, we learned that when looking for whales, we need only to look for birds!
What a shame that the dreary weather only disappeared a few minutes before our cruise ended.
In my opinion, bad weather can significantly affect how much enjoyment we derive from travel experiences. As you could tell from my photos, the weather was less than ideal on our boat trip through the national park. However, coming so close to some of Alaska's incredible wildlife and impressive glaciers was still a win in my book.
I've written about the Iditarod sled dog race in the last couple of posts. On the shore was the Trail Blazers Statue that marked Mile 0 of Alaska's Iditarod National Historic Trail. The sign said that the statue of a prospector and his dog symbolized the pioneers of a long-ago era when the trail connected Alaska's interior to Seward and the rest of the world.
After the discovery of gold on the Iditarod Trail from Seward to Nome in December 1908, dog teams hauled millions of dollars of gold south over the trail to the ice-free port of Seward, and tons of mail and supplies north. Thousands of gold prospectors snowshoed or mushed on the winter trail.
Seward's main street:
Steven and I had hoped to watch a movie at the Seward Community Library & Museum about the 1964 Good Friday 9.2-magnitude earthquake that battered Seward and southcentral Alaska. The strongest ever quake recorded in North America was centered just 95 miles northeast of the city.
13-year-old Aleut Benny Benson, who spent much of his early life in Seward, designed the state flag in 1926.
Fittingly, outside of town was the attractive Benny Benson Memorial.
As I wrote in the previous post, Seward has been officially designated the Mural Capital of Alaska. The largest in town was titled Remembering Exit Glacier, and served as a tribute to Seward's Exit Glacier. It was so named because early explorers crossing the Harding Icefield were able to 'exit' the ice and mountains from the glacier.
Though St. Peter's Episcopal Church, the oldest church in Seward, wasn't as striking as the Russian Orthodox churches we'd admired so much in Kenai's Old Town the day before, it was still beautiful. Constructed between 1905 and 1906, it was designated a National Historic Site and, in 1979, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The creek outside our room at the Steller Inn at 10:30 that night!
Posted on December 14th, 2025, from Denver, or have we been transported to the South, as the weather is almost freakishly warm just 11 days before Santa begins making house calls? Shorts and T-shirts aren't what we're accustomed to wearing at this time of year. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones wherever this finds you.
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