Exit Glacier

A short drive from Seward is the Exit Glacier.


Please click on all my pictures to enlarge... they are much improved and you can read the information about them.




Over the river


Through the woods


And to the Glacier


Here's another braided river. The stones are left by the receding glacier. Notice how flat the whole river area is. It's really unique. On the right edge of the picture way in the back by the bottom of the mountain and on the river bed is a cluster of shrubs. Please enlarge this. You will see 3 people..2 in red jackets. Now you can get more of the true immensity of these glaciers. It's really true. You have to be there to really feel how huge they truly are.


These signs are very informative.




Here's this years view of the glacier, and it has receded.


The carved out portions of these mountains are also caused by glaciers.

Fishing

Fishing is a huge industry and tourist industry in Alaska. Fishing fleets and signs like this are in abundance. Click on picture to read... in fact, click on all the pictures to see them better. :-)

USAF Rescue Helicopter

After we left the Sea Life Center, many people were looking up at the mountain. We heard a helicopter. We watched for awhile with the binoculars. After we left, we soon heard a helicopter very near us. We drove a couple of blocks to the local hospital, and there it was.


Off loading the patient (she'd been hiking, fallen and broken her leg, we heard).


We sat in the car watching.


It's taking off. It's much larger than the helipad. See the man leaning out the window?


Up in the air and he's still hanging out the window. As we were driving around Seward later, we saw this helicopter again. It was in the air and being refueled by a C130 tanker. Very interesting.

Sea Life Center in Seward, AK

Anemone.


Starfish.


No, I did not touch with any finger.


Stellar seal lion and harbor seal.


Feeding a harbor seal. This was a lot of fun to watch. Injured and sick sea life are brought here, helped and set free again.


Some of the outdoor tanks.


Octopus.



Some diving birds.


Starfish.


Giant Squid.


King Crab.


Sea lion swimming. The tanks were huge. We went downstairs to see these tanks.


Can you see the bird flapping his wings under water?


Bird swimming.


Jellyfish.


Jellyfish.

Boat trip up Kenai Fjord

For this boat trip, the weather was better.




Our boat is a catamaran.


Enlarge to see the sailboat with a red sail. The mountains look even bigger when you compare to the boat size.


Our first wildlife of the boat trip today. Puffins. There were literally thousands of them.


A beaver.


The glacier is a river of ice on it's way to the ocean.


WOW! 2 humpback whales.


That's one big whale!


After this dive, we didn't see them again. We think there were three of them. I have MANY MANY more pictures of them.. :-)


Stellar sea lions basking in the sun. Their noisy barks were amusing.






Rookery of red and black footed kittiwicks, and horned and tufted puffins.


Nesting puffins.


Red-footed kittiwick with his fish.


Nesting Kittiwicks.


Puffin.


Two cormorants flying and puffins are there too.


Puffins on cliff.


Arriving at the glacier.


Up close to the glacier. Let's see some breaking off...


No such luck... But they are SOO impressive!


A different glacier on the way home.


More sea otters. They are so cute just floating there in the middle of the ocean!


What a beautiful day!


Just a couple of harbor seals on the rocks.


What a wonderful day aboard this boat. We left at about 3:00pm and returned at about 9:30pm. We had been served a soup lunch and either chicken or salmon for dinner. The animals I didn't manage to get a picture of were the 3 Dall porpoises, black bear and 2 bald eagles.