Mother Nature’s Wonders…

Day 63 – Wednesday, August 14

(Sorry for the late post…no internet at the campground—I’m at the Seward Community Library.)

We continue to be amazed at the beauty and awesomeness of the scenery surrounding us.  Early this morning a cruise ship came into port.  It is docked in the Seward Harbor, and we can see it from the front window. 

In addition to the beauty outside our window, we observed a few additional wonders of nature today.  At a small stream adjacent to our campground, we watched salmon swimming upstream, against the current and over the rocks.  It is amazing to think about how they know where to go and what to do, and why they don’t just give up.  It’s also hard to think that they do their thing, and then die! These fish were HUGE!  There were red salmon and silver salmon…lots and lots of them.  Just amazing!  And what a thrill to see them in their annual spawning season. 

This morning we hiked a trail that led us to Exit Glacier. The trail led us to lookout points where we could view the glacier up close and personal.  The views were breathtaking!  Ranger Mike led our tour and pointed out so many things about the glacier.  it is receding about 300 ft. per year.  They have posted signs at intervals that show where the tongue of the glacier rested in various years…1851, 1951, 1984, etc. It’s obvious that global warming has had an impact.  The glacier is about 2 miles long, and is about 150 ft deep at the area that we saw, but up to 800 ft deep in the areas higher on the mountain.  It is so interesting to learn how the ice forms, and moves, and clears the land, and then the vegetation begins again…years and years later.

The ranger also told about the wildlife in the area—specifically moose.  He showed us a pile of moose droppings and broke it apart and showed us that it was mostly sawdust from the branches the moose feed on—they absorb the nutrients and deposit the rest.  He also told us an interesting fact—moose drop 360 pellets a day!!! Mother nature at work again!! (Never would have guessed that!) 

The area was full of glacial runoff..which creates a beautiful sight!

 

 

This evening we took a boat trip to Fox Island for dinner.  Fox Island can only be reached by boat.  It was great to see the bay from the water.  We also got to see all kinds of wildlife…especially birds.  There are a huge number of different species of birds here, and it is probably paradise for birdwatchers.  I can’t remember or pronounce some of the things we saw.  We saw a puffin…they are so cute!  Also saw a bald eagle, just sitting alone on a rock.  We saw kittiwakes, and murrelets, and these little birds that looked like penguins sitting on the rocks.  It looked like they were having a major bird party on the cliffs!

We found out that Resurrection Bay is a fjord, which means it was carved by glaciers.  The water is 900 ft. deep in some places-- it never freezes.   Seward is also considered a temperate rainforest.  They do not get the extreme weather that other parts of Alaska see in the winter time.  They also get more than their share of rain, so several of our guides thanked us for bringing sunshine (to which our group responded to by singing “You are my sunshine”—it is a very outgoing group!!)  We saw steller sea lions, and a very cute otter floating on his back, almost smiling and waving at us!

 

Dinner was great…we feasted on king crab legs and salmon.  The crab legs were gone before I thought to take a picture, but I did get a picture of our beverages on the boat!

Yes, Mother Nature has created some beautiful things!