Saturday, October 15, 2022

Day Cruise - Seward to Aialik Cape - Kenai Fjords National Park

Leaving Kotzebue on the northwest coast of Alaska, we flew to Anchorage and drove down to Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park. Having visited seventeen years earlier, we knew a day cruise was the best way for us to see as much of the park as possible. Since Major Marine Tours had provided us with a great experience before, we booked with them again. As expected they did another excellent job for us. However, this was the first time on our trip that the weather didn't cooperate as it was foggy during the morning and rained most of the day. Luckily, we could stay in the enclosed, warm, dry cabin and still see a lot of the park. My picture quality suffered as I took pictures through the windows or on deck in the rain. We sailed on the Spirit of Adventure in late August 2022. The 86-foot catamaran has seating for 190 although there were fewer than 170 on our tour.

Major Marine Tours Spirit of Adventure

Day cruise route

Reynard Island and Resurrection Penninsula

An unnamed waterfall flowing down a 2310-foot-high unnamed mountain

A cave forming in this headland south of Bulldog Cove

Sea stacks near the Aialik Penninsula

An unnamed cove between Bulldog Cove and Porcupine Cove on the Aialik Penninsula

Clouds still encircle a headland on the Aialik Penninsula

Cheval Island

Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata)

Four Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) on the rocks of Cheval Island

Clouds still linger over the Aialik Penninsula

Pilot Rock

An unnamed rock near Aialik Cape

A pair of Pelagic Cormorants (Phalacrocorax pelagicus or Urile pelagicus)
stand tall above a small colony of kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla)

A half-dozen Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus) "sunning" on the rocks

There is no entrance fee at Kenai Fjords National Park.

The Kenai Fjords National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/kefj/index.htm.

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