A Wildlife Day in Seward

When I got up this morning and looked out front, there were two bald eagles sitting on the pilings out front.

A little later, there was a sea otter busy diving and probably getting mussels off the pilings for it’s breakfast.

There has been a Navy ship in at the docks since we arrived, and today it headed out to sea.

We went to the Alaska Sealife Center to look around.  Here are a few photos from our visit there.

Next we decided to drive up the hill out of town on the route the runners will be taking on the 4th of July.  This photo was taken at the base of the mountain where they start the real climb, but at this point they have already been steadily climbing out of the downtown area.

From there, we headed back into town and getting down to the main road, we saw this moose and her calf.  Here are a few photos and we took.  Notice her back hoof that was very oddly shaped for whatever reason.  We’ve never seen anything like that.

We continued our drive to the road on the east side of the bay.  We had another wildlife sighting of a black bear at the side of the road.  It was standing up before it headed back into the brush.

Also on the east side we got a closer look at the Seward Ship Drydock building.

This building gets it’s insulation from shipping containers on all sides.

Crab pots line the road during the off season.

There’s even a state prison out here.

Ken used his camera to zoom in on the trails running up Marathon Mountain.

And the cruise ship of the day heads out of Resurrection Bay.  Our plans for tomorrow are to head across the street to dump the black and gray tanks and take on more fresh water.  The traffic in Seward is already picking up and the standby city RV parking areas have already opened and are filling up.  It’s interesting to watch as RV’s pull out, other people are ready to move in and grab an open space.  Jennifer and the girls will be driving down for the race on the 4th and headed home later that day.  Kimber and her family will be headed this way from Kenai tomorrow evening so we probably won’t see them until Saturday.

 

Some of the Seward Scenery

We spent most of the day at the RV while Ken took care of some minor maintenance items.  Marathon Mountain sits behind us and this is where Ian’s wife Jennifer will be doing her run on the 4th of July.  The annual race starts in the downtown area for 1.5 miles to the top of Marathon Mountain and back.  Jennifer has been running this race for several years and does quite well  so we’re excited to be here to cheer her on this year.

We woke up this morning to see that another cruise ship had arrived in Seward.

We took a drive this afternoon out to Lowell Point.  Ken wanted to get some information about Caines Head by stopping at Miller’s Landing which has a ferry shuttle service for hikes in that area.  Ken had heard that there had been Army quarters in a cave at that point, but they could only affirm that there was a dock at that location and other structures on top of the hill.  This is a waterfall close to the road at Lowell Creek.

This picture doesn’t really do it any justice, but the cedar shakes are placed to outline an angel blowing a horn.

This evening a bald eagle landed on one of the pilings in front of the RV.

The eagle remained perched on the piling as the cruise ship backed out of the bay.

A couple of young women walked down to the beach this evening and walked out into the water for a swim.

After a short swim, they walked out of the water and to their car in the parking lot.

Tomorrow will be another adventure of some kind.

Moose Pass and Sightseeing North of Seward

The weather was fair today so we decided to do some sightseeing north of town toward Moose Pass and back.  Our first stop was a viewpoint a little over 12 miles north of town where there were interpretive signs about the Chugach culture and Native Claims Settlement Act.  It was very scenic with the mountains and river in the background and a field of lupine up close.

We continued on north to the Trail Lake Fish Hatchery which is about 32 miles north of Seward.  Unfortunately we got there at a point where there was only a small fish tank in the visitor area and some interpretive displays on the wall about the process they go through.

From the hatchery, we drove south again and stopped in Moose Pass, a town that started as a construction camp for the Alaska Railroad in 1912.  We stopped at the Estes Brothers Grocery & Waterwheel.  They have a sign that proclaims “Moose Pass is a peaceful town.  If you have an ax to grind, do it here.”  We didn’t have an ax, but Ken tried sharpening his knife at the waterwheel.

We took a couple of side roads to check out two USFS campgrounds.  One was located on the south end of Kenai Lake and we took this photo on our way back to the Seward Highway.

As we got closer to Seward we took the side road to Exit Glacier to check out the Ididaride tour at the home of Mitch Seavey.  We probably won’t take that tour as it is $69 a person for 1-1/2 hours.  If there was a toursaver coupon to give us a 2 for 1 deal, it would have been more worth our time.  And finally here is a photo of Exit Glacier.

We’ve Moved to Seward, Alaska

Our friends, Dennis & Carol, have been in Seward for the last 4 nights with a waterfront site.  They told us the campground was filling up for the upcoming 4th of July holiday and offered to save their spot for us.  We decided to take them up on their offer and headed out early this morning and were in Seward in time to say our goodbyes to them as well as to  Marilyn and Larry.  They were all driving to Anchorage today, and we’ll be staying on the Kenai Peninsula for close to 2 more weeks, so we won’t be meeting up with them again during our Alaska travels.  We have a wonderful view of Resurrection Bay from our front window and have seen a U.S. Coast Guard ship.

Kenai Fjords Tours is a glacier and wildlife tour company.  We went on one of their boats while we were in Seward two years ago.

There are several pilings out front and seagulls and other birds are often perched on top of them.  We’ve seen a seal as well as a sea otter out there also, but no photos yet.

There was a cruise ship in at the dock.

And here we are set up in our campsite for the next 8 nights.

This is something I remembered from out last trip here that is interesting to watch.  The cruise ships back out into the bay with the assistance of a tugboat, and when they get out to a certain depth, the ship pivots around and continues on out of the bay as shown in the next few photos.

That’s all for today.  We have no definite plans for tomorrow, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something.