Entering Kenai Fjords National Park

A bird flies overhead as we cruise past a hanging glacier, hidden high in the mountains until the view is revealed.

Our first stop of this expedition trip was a visit to the glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park. Not far out of the Alaskan town of Seward, our ship entered flooded valleys with cliffs and mountains rising thousands of feet on either side. At the end of each valley was a blue wall of ice, hundreds of feet high, disappearing off into the clouds beyond. Pieces of ice had fallen off the face of these glaciers and now bobbed around in the fjord. It was the perfect place to get out and explore more intimately by kayak and small boat. So that is exactly what we did.

Our first stop was Holgate Glacier. It has several other hanging glaciers around it, that only reveal themselves from the proper angle. The birders onboard were thrilled with flocks of rhinocerus auklets, while everyone else enjoyed the playful seals and the stunning scenery. Waterfalls cascaded off the thousand foot cliffs, adding to the beauty.

After a beautiful morning at Holgate, we sailed back out into open water for a while, admiring the rugged outer coast, before dipping back into the protection of another fjord. At the end of this fojrd was the little visited Northwestern Glacier, named by Ulysses S. Grant for the university of the same name. Humpback whales and orca delighted the guests, and we got them involved in searching for mountain goats with their binoculars. Several goats were found by some of our eagle eyed guests.

This is a difficult place to get to, since you have to come by boat. There are day boats that go out of Seward, but not many of them go past the first couple of glaciers. So having our mobile adventure platform with the Safari Explorer means we can get to the far off places that are seldom explored. Enjoy coming along for the ride!

First ones of the day to get to Holgate Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.

Beautiful shadows and light hitting the glacier as it winds its way through the mountains of the park.

Another beautiful hanging glacier, ending in a waterfall.

Getting up close to waterfalls, tumbling down into the fjord waters.

Beauty in nature. It is all around us.

Some of our group chose to explore by kayak, others by skiff. Everyone got to spend the morning soaking up the natural beauty of Kenai Fjords and its majestic glaciers.

Getting ready to send out our kayaks to explore the face of Holgate Glacier.

This was about as close as I would drive the group to the glacier.

Blue ice in the glacier.

The kayakers looking pretty small in front of the glacier.

Kayakers with a big smile after making it back to the boat. What a fun way to explore Kenai Fjords!

We swooped into Cataract Bay to see some waterfalls near Northwest Glacier.

Cataract Bay providing some beautiful.

The sun vanished as we neared Northwest Glacier. This is farther from civilization, so we had it all to ourselves.

Northwestern Glacier.

A rhinocerus auklet looks back over its shoulder to check out all the cameras pointed at it.

Pelagic and double crested cormorants flock together on this rock in the fjords.

A mom and kid mountain goat climb an impossible cliff next to Holgate Glacier, delighting our guests.

As always, keep traveling and keep posting!

• Dai Mar