Kenai Fjords National Park

Our first National park visit in Alaska was the Kenai Fjords. We drove for more than 2 hours along AK1 which reminded us a lot of the drive through crescent lake in Olympic National park in Washington..

There is a slough here as the rivers get into the bay and deposit the silt, which happens to be paradise for birds and fishermen as they work on getting as many fish as they possibly can!

The water was freezing cold (you can see the ice on the surface at places) and we have guys with boots in thigh deep water with nets trying to compete with the birds. Truly amazing sight to watch!

Once we reached the park, we went on a cruise to see the Glaciers. Enroute to the Glaciers (the boat ride was 6 hours!) we saw everythign from Bald eagles, golden eagles, seals of different types, whales of different types, bears clawing on the icy slopes trying to get higher, birds by the hundreds of thousands creating a cacophony of unprecedented proportions, and the list goes on and on! 

It was very cold outside and after the first thirty minutes, could not feel my fingers on the shutter release. So was glad to get any pictures given I could not dial in the other knobs like I usually do! Don't think gloves would have made it any better. So my appreciation for those guys who shoot documentaries on snow leopards in the himalays went up 10000%!

Here are some of the Fauna shots...

 

That was no fluke.. Had clicked away trying to track them with the 200mm plus 2x extender all the way at 400x on a moving boat. The rest of the crowd on the boat was busy waiting for a humpback whale to breach on the other side as the whale made circles of bubbles trying to trap food into a bubble net while I was alone on the other side watching the eagles! I did get to see the whale come out and feed as with many other whales..

 

They are very smart the way they hunt in groups for their food. It is a treat to watch them run circles around the fish and finally close in when the circle is small enough. The birds are smarter. They dive into the water and take a big cut just before the whales close in. The bonus for us? We know where the whales are going to surface by watching the birds..

We have gone whale watching in many places but never have we seen so many whales in action so close by like this park! 

Did I mention the seals and birds that were creating quite a ruckus? Well, the rules prohibit the boats from going too close to the them. Also the rock faces underneath the boat (you can see images the captain shows on a monitor) are jagged and projecting out and it is not safe to go too close to the rocks!

The big 9+ scale earthquake that pretty much wiped out the area apparently was epicentered at Prince William Sound, the place where we saw the zillion birds and seals. This place was amazing and pristine in its beauty that it took our breath away! The sub zero winds helped with that task as well..

 

We also saw this black bear which had just come out of hibernating and was clawing away at a rock face trying to get up there on ice and wet rock. Just imagine.. you have just been sleeping for six plus months and are hungry, you come out of your den and realize you are disoriented, chose a rock face for a long sleep and have to make it out to find food and you have a bunch of tourists cliking away at you. . . no wonder they have rules for minimum distance..

When we came back from the glacier it was heart warming to watch the big guy who had made it past the ice field and into more steep rocks where he seemed more comfortable..

The scenery pictures are yet to be worked on. When I go back and look at those pictures, somehow there is a longing to just stop everything and go back there.. someday, someday... we will get to spend an entire summer in Alaska.. Just San, me, some hot Chai and no schedules to meet, no planes to catch anywhere.. 

It could happen...anything can happen!