Alaska: Seward

Alaska: DAY THIRTEEN & FOURTEEN


Seward was one of my favorite towns. It had the mountains, beaches, and an abundance of wild animals. It was small - but busy and beautiful......




We took an awesome cruise. That boat featured in the picture above (obviously) was not the one we went on. lol

The orca were flirting with the boat jumping and swimming all around. They sure were awesome to observe. At that moment Isaac was being fussy - as well as almost every moment we were on the boat. I don't know if it was his teeth, pressure in his ears, or just the motion of the boat. He was not a happy sailor.

This is one of the more famous glaciers, I forgot the name of it already.

If you look closely at the photo above - you can see Harper Seals hanging out on the ice....

We heard the "White Thunder." The ice moans & creaks loudly as it breaks apart and collapses in the water. I tried to get a video - but the other people on the boat were more aggressive at getting their photos with their huge lens's. I wasn't about to fight my way through with a baby. ha ha.

After the cruise - we looked at all the angler action by all the shops...........

These photos were taken at our cute little Bear Creek Cabin. It was the nicest place we stayed at on this whole trip. There was a bunk bed for Ava and a futon on the bottom. Everything was brand new.

The following day we went to the Sea Life Museum:

Talk about a close encounter! I bet she won't forget that :P

After the museum we went to the beach.

I'm so happy we had the opportunity to go to Alaska. It really is a different world. I wouldn't want to live there - but I would go back again in a heartbeat and visit again. I feel like we just scratched the surface. Someday ;)

Alaska: Departure from Denali

Alaska: DAY TWELVE





We had viewed almost animal that you can think of in Denali. We had the opportunity to go wildlife viewing with Travis and other park rangers in the evenings. We put the scopes and binoculars to great use. At one point, we followed a juvenile wolf for about 10 miles! It was so cool how steady his pace was and how much ground he covered in a short amount of time. At times, we were close enough to wildlife that I could take some decent photos. It would have been a lot better with a higher quality camera :)

















As we were parked, this wolf trotted past us like he knew he owned the road :)


He was so close, I could have stuck my hand out the window and gave him a head massage. He was on a mission - he was fast enough that I could only get a couple of pictures. This was the best one without too much of the windshield gunk.



It was sad to know we only had one more day in Denali National Park. We decided to go one more adventure hike.

This time we would hike in a different habitat: river beds and spruce forest.

On the other side of the river, you could see Travis's cabin and the rest of the Residential Area.

.......Inside the Spruce Forest that Travis named "Dead Hare Forest." He said that the owls capture hares and consume them from the tops of the trees. The remaining body parts fall to the forest floor. Apparently he found skeletons all over. We believed him - because we found some too! Ha ha

:D

The moss that blanketed the ground was so thick that it was like walking on pillows. At least this is how I described it to Ava. She thought it was so fun - she'd jump and then land on it on her behind. It was steadily raining at this point of our hike. By the time we got back to Travis's cabin, we had to change our clothes. It rained the rest of the evening. Visibility was bad for wildlife viewing that night, so we stayed indoors.

The rain was cold and wet, so we hiked back quickly. By the time we returned to the cabin we had to change our clothes. It rained the rest of the evening. Visibility was too poor to go out and view wildlife, so we stayed indoors and relaxed on our final night here.

On our drive out of the heart of Denali - we saw some more Brown Bear, Dall Sheep, and Moose........

We drove back to Anchorage and then got on Seward Highway, making sure to stop at Beluga Whale Point again. It was a much more pleasant day today than it was last week here.

Info on the Beluga Whales..............

We were lucky - because a lot of whales were out today! They were pretty hard to photograph.

We hit the highway again and stopped somewhere in Chuchuga National Forest where there was another gorgeous glacier.

The ice was so cold it was blue.

There was a river not too far down the road that was FULL of spawning salmon. Surprisingly, there were no bears around taking advantage of this.

Well, we still had about 60 miles to Seward where would spend two nights :)

Another beautiful/eventful day coming to an end..................