Highlights Map
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It is raining in the morning, not a good sign for our cruise but we have no choice so we go on with our program. Before the cruise we decide to go to the Alaska Sealife Center, the local aquarium, of course this is after our breakfast at the cabin, it is always good to start with a healthy breakfast.
We catch a lull in the rain as we arrive at the aquarium so at least we can get from the car to the aquarium without being rained on. We even have time to take some photos of the mountains across the bay covered by the clouds, it is very scenic but not very encouraging for our cruise.
As we noticed the previous days the gulls do not really care about the weather with a glaucous-winged gull shadowing us for a while, hoping for handouts likely.
The Sealife Center is right next to the downtown area which looks nice enough so we make a mental note to visit it later after the cruise if at all possible.
The entrance fee is quite expensive but we think it is worth it so in we go. What we don’t like is that even with the amount of money they take in there aren’t any maps given so we just have to guess what the route is and even after we exit we are not sure if we have seen everything.
The exhibits start funnily enough for an aquarium with a fish catching boat that you can use to take photos with. And then we enter the main area where the exhibits are, there are birds, mammals and of course fish and we have to see all of them.
Unfortunately the birds are behind glass and you cannot enter the enclosures. There is a good reason though because they are trying to protect them from the avian flu which is just starting in the area.
The starfish are not as protected and you can touch them if you so like. And you can enter the mammal enclosure area to see the sealions and seals, but they are quite playful and do their best to splash the visitors.
The aquariums are focused on fish living close to Alaska coast and there are quite a few interesting exhibits including one about salmon of different sizes. There are also quite a few crabs shown including the snow crabs that are disappearing in large numbers from the Alaska coast.
Interestingly you can see the seals and sealions also from below and they seem to be aware of that playing around in front of the windows. They even swim head down which is quite weird for us but they seem to like it.
Before driving to our cruise we have time to explore the area a bit which allows us to see our first pigeon guillemot who is swimming calmly on the water. There are also a few fox sparrows which seem to enjoy the seaside environment and are playing around near us.
We decide to use the cruise lines parking lot as it is free and it has a shuttle to the starting point and gift shop. We arrive early so we have half an hour time before our cruise to visit the gift shop and then the announcement tells us which berth to go to and on we go. At this point it is not raining anymore so the walk is a nice one even though the ship is anchored at the other end of the dock.
After finding what we think are two good seats we wait for everyone else to arrive. However unfortunately not everyone is as punctual so the ship has to wait for some passengers for over 15 minutes past the expected departure time and then when they arrive they do not even seem to hurry at all.
And then it is time to leave. The weather is still very overcast but we go outside as much as we can to see the wildlife and are rewarded with sights of bald eagles flying and even fishing around us.
There are some nice views of Seward from the boat as we start exploring narrow Resurrection Bay heading towards the open sea.
There are bouts of showers and it is quite cold so we cannot stay that long outside so we are surprised at the number of people that stay almost the whole cruise on the outside benches. That is especially true on this part of the trip where besides bald eagles we can only see gulls and the ship does not slow down for anything.
The reason behind this is that we have to arrive for lunch at Fox Island and only after this are we going to do official wildlife watching. Or this is what we understand when we arrive at Fox Island, which is more developed than we expected with a good dock extending to the lodge and restaurant.
Before lunch we have a short period to explore the area that we are allowed to go to which is quite limted. There is the beach and more interesting an internal lake where we see a few ducks.
We are interested to see how they can serve that many passengers and we find out as soon as we enter, it is buffet style. This allows them to serve many people in a short period of time so it makes sense. And the food is good enough so energized we are now ready for the continuation of our trip.
As we are between the first to be ready we plan to explore a bit more during the remaining time. However we are unable to do that due to the rain which is now at a maximum so we stand under the roof overhang and just wait for the rain to finish. In a lull in the rain we see people going to the beach to skip pebbles, supposedly this beach is famous for the great stones that can be used for skipping.
We take one last look at Fox Island behind us in the fog and then we continue on following the coastline past small islands towards the bird rookery.
On this stretch we see our first more interesting birds with the red-faced cormorant, a life bird, being a highlight. There are also a few pigeon guillemots on the water which are always cool to see.
And there are also puffins, quite a few in the water, on this stretch. They are always a highlight as we always enjoy seeing the “parrots of the sea”.
This area is also quite scenic with small arches and rugged coastlines all around us.
We especially like the many waterfalls coming down the cliffs. At least there is a good outcome of all the rain and the moody clouds are also quite scenic creating fog on the many islands we are passing by.
Many of the cliffs are also full of kittiwakes that are resting and even nesting nearby. We always like when we see them in flight and we can notice the black legs that give them the full name, black-legged kittiwakes.
There are specific areas where the seabirds are nesting and the ship is planning to pass by the major rookery so we can see more kittiwakes and hopefully additional birds.
In the rookery we see quite a few better built nests and lots and lots of kittiwakes. However the highlight for us are the Steller Sea Lions a species that is mostly restricted to the far northern latitudes.
Most sea lions are not interested in us but one takes a keen interest and makes a few faces at us. A bonus for the other sea lion near it that opened just a lazy eye to watch us.
There are quite a few puffins also and the place is limited making some puffins very wary of any newcomers as we watch the drama unfold as four puffins try to keep the fifth one away from the ledge they conquered.
From here we are going towards the open ocean where we see our first common murres. They swim in pods and it is special to watch them swimming around the ship likely looking for fish.
Our trip doesn’t actually go into the open ocean, those trips are much longer, but skirts the opening of Resurrection Bay passing by multiple scenic small islands and even allowing us to see the seaside glaciers in the distance.
As we pass these islands we also notice lots of wildlife including harbor seals and otters enjoying the cooler waters and fish bounty near the islands.
We are not the only ship in the area and when one notices a whale then all the other ships gather around trying to get a glimpse. We wait for some time and get a few glimpses but none are long enough to take a photo of the whale. At least we are able to take photos of the puffins flying around.
And then it is time to return in port at high speed. And this is when we see our first Dall’s Porpoises who keep pace with the boat even at high speed and swim around it for some time until they get bored. In the distance we also see another humpback whale and this one is more cooperative and allows a few pictures before diving back down.
The weather is the same when we return as it was when we left foggy, rainy and cold but we do not feel it that much anymore. We both got used to it and also enjoyed seeing all the wildlife and birds with the only drawback being the number of kids on the boat that decided during the cruise that our places are the best places to play around and scream.
On land we decide to walk back to our car instead of taking the shuttle as it seemed like a nice walk and there were a few sights the driver pointed out that we wanted to explore in more depth. One of them is the Benny Benson Memorial Park in honor of the kid who had the winning design for the Alaska flag.
The trail is passing also near the Lagoon a large lake with literally no water birds on it, quite weird. At least there are a few flowers that we can enjoy on the way.
With the car recovered we drive the short distance to the downtown area that we decided to visit earlier in the day. We start with the parks around the edge of the bay which are full of statues before moving inland towards the main street.
There are a few historical houses but what we are looking for are any souvenir shops. To our surprise there are only a few even though there are lots of tourists milling through the area. In the end we buy some sweets and then it is time to move on to our last destination for the day.
Our last destination for the day is the Lowell Point Road which just a few days before was impacted by a landslide. To our surprise the road is already open with just a few signs pointing that you shouldn’t stop on that stretch, something that we had no intention on doing.
We can see why there was a landslide as the waters are quite high after the rain which leads to the waterfalls near the road to flow at full blast and likely to destabilize the cliffs.
There are lots of interesting birds on the water which is surprising. We even see our first Marbled Murrelet on this stretch which is great besides many pigeon guillemots.
Of course there are also many gulls some seemingly trying to fly into us as evidenced by the short billed gull below that flew quite close to us.
At the accomodation we decide to walk the roads around it to explore the woods and see if there is anything interesting. And there are some birds including many fox sparrows watching us from every thicket.
We are excited to see another varied thrush which for us is still a rare bird and a beautiful Red Squirrel watching us for a few seconds before scampering away. And then it is time to return to the lodging and eat dinner from our provisions and start packing as tomorrow we are relocating towards Denali.
