Heaven on Kenai

 

The Kenai Peninsula on a sunny day is a piece of heaven, particularly if that is the day you have decided to splurge on a tour into the Kenai Fiords National Park, accessible only by boat. If there is a park ranger on board like the tour we chose, even better.

The mountains rise 6,000 feet straight out of the water. The glaciers touch the edge of the calm waters in the bays created by the fiords. On a day like today, the ocean swells are only three feet; no one gets sick. By contrast, yesterday it was raining and the swells were ten feet. On the other hand, they saw orcas.

Wildlife list?

Sea Otters
Baleen whales (humpies)
Stellar Sea Lions - look at my video clip; these guys are funny!
Puffins
Eagles
Black footed kittiwakes
Birds birds birds

The park is home to 218 species of birds, 48 species of mammals, and 450 species of plants. It is awe inspiring how much life returns here for the summer. The Arctic terns travel from Antarctica.

Seward is the base for these tours, and what a quaint little town of 2000 people. There's more here than the park; Alaska Sea Life Center, the beginning of the Iditarod trail, the beginning of the Alaska railroad, Exit Glacier that you can walk on, sea kayaking......

So many more choices here. And not a single fast food hamburger joint in town. Tonight we dined on fresh halibut caught today....bought it about an hour off the boat. YUM!

We are in our second night at the quiet and scenic Stoney Creek RV park in the woods about 6 miles out of town on Stoney Creek, a fine place to walk a dog. Next week, there will not be a spec of land to park the RV. Locals from Anchorage will be staking out their spots for the 4th of July Marathon Mountain run and festival. Hundreds run 3000 feet up the mountain and down....and party all weekend. The town will open every parking lot for the 30,000 people it expects. Maybe we will come back just for the spectacle...for the day, which is only 22 hours long.

On the way down from Anchorage, we met a family that moved to Fairbanks where the man is the director of public radio there. They had gone clamming down in Homer for the first time, got lots of razor clams, and had a great time! I used to have a pair of pants called clam diggers. Wonder if I will want them?