Halfway into my 6-month contract in Alaska one of my closest cousins, Anna came to visit me. She took a week off from work and flew nearly 5,000 miles to experience Alaska with me. I was so excited to get out of Deadhorse for a bit and finally see someone that I knew. We wanted to see as much as possible for this trip so we planned the perfect Alaskan road trip. Our first stop was the adorable seaside town, Seward.
July 29th Anchorage
Our road trip started on Saturday, July 29th, Anna and I met in Anchorage. There’s not a whole to see in Anchorage itself, there are a couple of museums and some nice hikes right outside of town but nothing overly exciting.
The views from downtown Anchorage are pretty incredible. Someday I will live in a place where the mountains surround me, where the views take my breath away daily.
The guys at camp told me to check out Moose’s Tooth for dinner and beer so Anna and I headed there our first night. Moose’s Tooth is a local brewery serving up great homemade pizza. They have a wide variety of beers on tap ranging from pale ales to stouts, whatever tickles your fancy I’m sure they’ll have some!
Seward Bound
We started our day off pretty early, the first real stop of our road trip was Seward. Seward is a good two and a half hour drive from Anchorage without any stops but believe me you’ll want to stop at least a couple of times to take in the absolutely stunning scenery.
For the first half of the drive the ocean borders the road on one side and the mountains borders it on the other side.
By the halfway mark you’re deep in the Kenai Mountain Range of Alaska. With the tallest peak of the Kenai Mountain Rage at 6,612 feet, I couldn’t imagine that the mountains would only get taller. Even at the end of July, the peaks were coated with snow. Some of the peaks even had patches of ice shaded by the shadows of taller mountains.
Coming from the Arctic the peaks seemed to be that much taller. The stark contrast between the flat open tundra and the sharp mountain peaks made it hard to believe the two existed within the same state. Mountain views have always given me an excited almost buzzing energy. As we drove along I wondered what the view from the top would look like. Did Anchorage just pop up out of mountains as it seemed?
Like most towns in Alaska, Seward just seems to pop up out of nowhere. One moment you’re driving through dense mountains and the next your in town. There are no real suburbs to warn you that a city is coming, it’s just all of a sudden there. Seward is a coastal city sitting right on the edge of Resurrection Bay, the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park.
Kenai Fjords National Park
Kenai Fjord National Park is the main reason we had gone to Seward. I had spoken to many of the guys at work about where their favorite places were in Alaska. Most of them were born and raised in AK who better to ask, just about every one of them recommended Seward.
Kenai Fjords National Park is teeming with all kinds of marine life. Anna and I booked a tour through Kenai Fjords Tours. They have lots of different tour options, letting you choose the best option for your budget, time frame and interests. They are all boat tours as that is the only way to reach the National Park. Some of the other tour groups also offer kayaking tours if that sounds like more your style, we opted for the boat tour as we wanted more of a relaxing day.
We chose the Kenai Fjords National Park Tour which lasts 6 hours and costs $150 USD. The tour takes you out to Resurrection Bay into the National park and out to one of the spectacular glaciers in the area. We saw dozens of lounging Steller Sea Lions, some sunbathing Seals, and even a few curious Sea Otters.
The scenery was incredible, a mix between Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Carribean. The rocky cliffs covered in lush green forests were like nothing else I had seen. I was so happy to see trees again, I didn’t realize how much I would miss trees until I lived in a place without them.
Anna and I had many animals on our Alaskan bucket list, the Kenai Fjords Tour was our only opportunity to see many of the marine animals that call Alaska home. The big-ticket item on our list for Seward was to see a whale. Millions of fish make their way up the rivers of Alaska to spawn every year, and where there is prey there will be a predator.
About a quarter of the way into our tour we got our first glimpse of a whale, it appeared to of been a grey whale though it was hard to tell. Even though it was only a quick glance from a distance it was exciting to know there were whales in the area! Maybe a half hour later we saw 2 Orcas!! They didn’t fully breach, just their dorsal fin and their spouts were visible but it was breathtaking to see. These were not the huge Killer Whales that are typically associated with Orcas they were a bit smaller and their spots were more of a grey color than pure white.
There are actually 4 distinct types of Orcas and at least 10 different forms, all with slightly different markings, different food sources, and different behaviors. None of the types interbreed making each group quite unique.
Glacier Viewing
The halfway mark of the trip was Holgate Glacier, one of the many spectacular glaciers in Alaska. The ship did get pretty close but for this part at the very least, I wish we had done one of the Kayaking tours. The groups kayaking were able to get quite close to the glacier, giving them what I can only imagine to be spectacular views. While we were there taking in the view, a large chunk of ice fell from the glacier into the sea below. In that instance I was quite grateful to be on a ship, I’d imagine that would be quite scary in a kayak.
If it’s quiet enough you can hear what sounds like the ice cracking. It’s an unnerving sound, it seems as though the whole glacier could break apart at any moment. Well as it turns out that sound isn’t the ice cracking, it’s pieces of ice falling into the water.
Seeing glaciers in Alaska is pretty humbling experience. They’ve been around since the ice age, moving huge chunks of rock and gravel with them. Water is such a powerful force of nature, being able to change and shape the earth. The glaciers are a perfect example of that, they left behind huge valleys, marking their paths all over Alaska.
Back to Port
On the way back Anna and I were out on the side deck, soaking up some sun, we looked down and saw thousands of jellyfish! It was incredible, they could have been easily missed mistaken for bubbles or a reflection on the water.
As we were sitting inside discussing how we had seen everything besides a fully breached whale a huge grey whale popped up to breath and then dove back under sticking its huge tail out of the water. Such an incredible sight, it happened way too fast for me to grab my camera, unfortunately.
About 45 minutes from Seward the Captian pulled the ship into this little inlet where dozens of puffins nested. Besides penguins, they’re probably the cutest birds ever. If you want a good laugh watch Puffins land. I’m not sure why but they’re not very graceful about it, often crashing into each other or clumsily belly flopping onto land or in the water. It’s hysterical to watch. They also seem to have a 6th sense about when you’re going to photograph them, nearly every photo I took of these adorable little fellas was blurry!
A Night in Seward
After the tour we checked into our hotel, Hotel Seward. It is a bit pricey, about 200 a night but you’re not going to find much cheaper for hotels. Hotel Seward is a family owned and operated hotel, right in downtown Seward. The hotel is unique to say the least, the lobby is full of taxidermy animals. When I was booking the hotel room it appeared as though each room had it’s own theme so I was a little disappointed to see that our room just looked outdated. The room was small and smelled a little musty but it would work for the night.
Anna and I did a little bar hopping in Seward after dinner, starting at the Seward Brewery where I got a panty peeler entirely for the name.
We stopped into the Yukon Bar on our way back to the hotel, a quirky little dive bar. I love bars like this, the bar is usually full of locals with cheap drinks and weird little nicknacks all over the walls.
I got a little drunk, probably a little too drunk but I hadn’t been out in 3 months so why not. We got back to the hotel around midnight, Anna went to buy a bottle of water and I attempted to get dressed for bed. This is where it gets a little fuzzy for me. Apparently, when Anna came back I was laying in the middle of the floor without pants on saying I think I’m gonna throw up.
Anna and I are both in fits of laughter, we hear a knock on the door. As quickly as I could manage I crawled out of the hallway to hid while Anna opened the door. We had received a noise complaint, oops!
Thankfully the next morning I felt fine, man to be 22 again when hangovers were a myth.
