Our trip began with a late night arrival in Anchorage and picking up a rental car. The next day we gathered supplies: A cooler, food, bear spray, and bug spray. As we arrived at the beginning of June, the bug spray was not needed. We drove from Anchorage to Seward taking in the views of the turnagain arm. A quick stop at Beluga Point revealed thinhorn sheep across the road and further down the road we found a sheep just above the road past Windy Corner.
Moose are common in all of the areas of Alaska and Seward was no exception. Moose were seen around the edges of town and when driving the highway back toward Anchorage just a few miles from town.
We took a boat tour out of Seward with Northern Lattitudes Adventures. We did the 9 hour tour which is recommended as it allows enough time to visit the glaciers and stop for wildlife. We saw numerous birds including horned and tuffted puffins, rhino auklets. We also saw steller sea lions. Our guides told us the sea lion population had crashed 80% but in recent years fishing restrictions had resulted in the population recovering. We saw sea lion pups at nursing rocks so hopefully that is a good sign that the recovery will continue.
Orcas and Humpback whales were seen several times during the trip.
Other mammals seen from the boat were mountain goat and black bear.
Sea otters were one of the stars of the tour.
Habor seals can be seen resting on ice at the glaciers.
Ducks, eagles, stellar sea lions can be seen from shore either at the area between the small boat harbor and the camp ground or at lowell point. However, the boat tours are a much better way to experience sea wildlife.
|
There are a few worthwhile stops between Anchorage and Seward. One of which is Portage Pass. It was raining and we were short on time, so we did not do the trail which is highly rated. The lake is scenic, there is a boat tour you can take. Byron Glacier is a short trail nearby leading to an ice cave and a glacier you can view but not climb on (it's on a cliff).
|