Wednesday

  

Here is where we are, at Bird Creek Campground.

There aren’t actually many birds here, but it’s a good place to be right now.

 

There is a nice trail that goes by us called the Bird to Gird Path.

It goes from Bird Creek, a hot salmon fishery, to Girdwood, a town about 12 miles down the road.

 

Here is the view at nearby Bird Point.

 

 

 

From this nicely constructed pathway and lookout.

 

 

We have a tree turning yellow here and dropping its leaves,

 

…which brings the conversation back around to winter and Alaska and when winter arrives in Alaska.  We’re not worried about a little bit of cold and snow, unless that snow lands on our slide awnings and doesn’t melt off right away.  It’s hard to pull the slides in to move the rig when there is snow on the slide awnings.  They won’t roll up into the retractor.  No worries though; no snow in the forecast; no problem!  It’s only just August tomorrow.  How bad could it be anyway?

 

 

 

Tuesday

 

That Wednesday boat ride was so great, it took me four days to describe it.

 

Sunday, we went for a nice calm walk.  First, we drove to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.

 

A ranger told us that dark streak down the middle is because the middle flows fasted than the edges and all the rocks and junk the glacier picks up along the way is funneled to the center.

 

Then we followed a trail through the woods.

 

 

Admiring the view along the way.

 

 

And the moss on the rocks.

 

 

And got right up to the glacier itself.

 

And met a really nice young person from Barrow, visiting friends in Anchorage, who took our picture for us.

 

Every glacier on the Kenai Peninsula is fed by the Harding Ice Fields, a seven-hundred square mile sheet of ice.  Replenished by 400 inches of snowfall a year, it pushes down on forty separate glaciers keeping them moving.  Exit Glacier moves along at about a foot a day.

 

Here is a moment in front of the glacier.

 

Exit Glacier video

 

It wasn’t as windy as it sounds.  It was a little chilly though, in front of the ice.

 

 

 

Monday

  

It got dark!  The sun was still up when we went to bed, but with our being father south, and with it later in the year past the summer solstice, when I got up in the middle of the night briefly, it was dark!

 

We’ve moved a couple times since we last had internet.  On Saturday we went to the Seward KOA for full hookups for a couple days.  Today, we’re at Bird Creek State Park south of Anchorage.

 

This part of the Alaska trip map

 

Here is a picture from Seward.

 

The fireweed is still in bloom, but it looks like it might be starting to fade.  The flower stalks start from the bottom and work their way up to the top.  We’re told when the fireweed blooms are gone, so is summer.  We’re not giving up that easily though.  We still have the month of August before it starts to snow.  No need to hurry home.

 

 

 

 

Sunday

  

There were other excitements on Wednesday’s boat ride.  There were humpbacked whales.

 

 

 

 

 

Dolphins.

 

 

Puffins galore.

 

 

 

 

Kittlitz’s murrelets.

 

Parakeet auklets.

 

Sooty shearwaters.

 

Pigeon guillemots.

 

 

And more sea otters.

 

Even a sea otter savoring a starfish!

 

 

And lastly, our newfound friends who shared this adventure with us!

 

 

 

Saturday

 

It was a long day on the boat on Wednesday.  Not only did we see scenery, glaciers, and icebergs, we saw sea lions.

 

 

 

 

And orcas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, spectacularly, sea lions and orcas at the same time; one sea-mammal-eating sea mammal pitted against another sea mammal.

 

 

 

Orcas patrolling right up against the rocks, withdrawing, returning.  Intelligent strategic creatures; velociraptors of the sea.

 

 

A roaring diving and splashing racket from the sea lions.  Surprisingly they didn’t all just jump up out of the water, they advanced, retreated, and advanced again.  It was almost like the sea lions were taunting the orcas as much as the orcas were taunting them.

 

The whales doing their own tail splashing.

 

 

We couldn’t know the entirety of the situation.  There was clearly an encounter between the two types of creatures.  Were there any winners or losers; were any whales fed or sea lions lives lost?  We couldn’t tell.  As the situation quieted down, we moved along.