The fish house at the resort is something I've never seen before. There were actually two buildings, large enough for 30 or so people to clean their fish at the same time. Deep industrial counters lined both walls of the building with another in the center. Each station had a hose, an opening in the back wall for discarded fish parts, bags and a vacuum sealing station. My kids loved watching people clean their catch.
While walking along the docks in Seward, we spotted a few sea otters,
about 4ft long, these are completely different from river otters. They are
so cute how they lay upside down in the water with their feet sticking up.
Asher REALLY wanted to go fishing but he's too young for the fishing excursions. Maybe we can arrange something next time we're in Alaska. For now we had to settle for admiring the gobs of fish that others brought in.
At Kenai Fjords National Park we joined a ranger-led hike along the Edge of the Glacier trail. We learned how silt, the dust created when two rocks rub against each other, colors the river and lake water blue.
We found moose scat along the trail. The ranger had also brought along some that she had baked to kill germs. She gave some to the kids to break open and reveal what the moose eats during the winter- tree branches.
Finally we had a good view of Exit Glacier. It was given that name accidentally due to a news article about the impending celebration of man's first crossing of the Harding Icefield in 1968. The newspaper reported the group was soon expected to "exit glacier" and the name stuck. It's much, much smaller than it used to be, but still impressive. While an additional 90-120 feet of snow falls each year on top of the glacier, it is melting and retreating faster than accumulating. Soon it may not touch the ground at all and become a hanging glacier instead.
This info board gives an idea of how fast the glacier is melting.
At one point our group was listening to the ranger and I looked back and saw Asher and Journey laying together on the rock having their own conversation. Cute!
Headed up to the overlook.
Time to head back.
This map displays the topography of the park. The only area that you can get to by car is Exit Glacier. The rest of the park can only be explored by boat or plane. I'd love to come back and see the fjords and glaciers by boat someday.
The kids received a Jr Ranger badge AND Jr Glacier Ranger patch!
Back at the yurt, the kids were excited to draw pictures of our time at the park. Asher had insisted on bringing along his art supplies, as he felt he'd be inspired in the yurt. He and Journey both drew quite a few pictures before bed. Asher drew us hiking to the glacier at the national park and another picture of us with the yurt.
On the last day, my search for new birds took us to the black sand beach of Lowell Point where I found the black-footed kittiwake and my kids found a great place to play. I was shocked to see so many people swimming in the ice cold water on what for me was a chilly day. We saw a few more sea otters and I saw 3 black Dall Porpoises jumping out of the water.
Check out the pink fireweed, so pretty!
Seward is a cute little town...that smells of fish.
We stopped at the docks again and a couple that had just returned from fishing, were happy to show us their catch and even let Asher hold one for a picture. I managed one photo before he dropped it on the ground, whoops! Their yellow, bug-eyed rock fish were pretty cool looking. Wish I snapped a picture of that.
On our drive out of Seward, I noticed this beautiful spot along the
highway and pleaded with Daddy to turn around for some photos.
A little further down the road we stopped at the fish overlook near Moose Pass to see these reds coming up the river to spawn. There were lots of them and it was the first time I've really seen them jumping out of the water to hurry upstream.
I also found this cute little mushroom. There are a TON of mushrooms growing at our campground right now, all different colors, shapes and sizes.
