Alexes Abroad 2009: Kenai Fjords, Alaska

Paddling towards Aialik Glacier

ADORABLE sea otters

Pedersen Glacier

The huge success of our 4-day kayaking trip on Aialik Bay, in the Kenai Fjords National Park (Alaska) was the result of great teamwork. Alex S kept insisting on going, even in the face of a dubious Alex G. Alex G, once resigned to going, found and organized a trip in record time (www.kayakak.com/aialik_bay.cfm). And Lady Luck delivered us: (a) fortuitous weather, both bad and good, and (b) Dave.

So, how can bad weather be fortuitous? An awful forecast for the Alaskan "interior" sent us to the coast. There we discovered not only good weather, but also that everyone in the kayaking business would have closed up shop and headed south for the winter if we’d gone in early September as planned. That would have been a spanner in the works. And Dave was our kayaking guide, who took our time on Aialik from good to "epic", as he would put it.

Dave on the glassy bay

The three of us paddled all the way around Aialik Bay. We looked at "gardens" clinging to rocks overhanging the water, seals and otters appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye (or hanging around to watch us), whales feeding and breaching (BIG belly flops!), glaciers sparkling in the sun and calving into the water, black bears deftly (and sometimes not-so-deftly) catching salmon in lagoons behind beaches. We sat in the middle of the bay and listened to ice from the glaciers crackling and popping all around us as it melted, and ate juicy, fresh-picked salmonberries.

Approaching Holgate Glacier

Succulent salmonberry (eaten after photo taken)

It gets deep quickly!

Inquisitive seal

We spent two nights camping on remote beaches, and then checked into the recently opened Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge for a night (www.kenaifjordsglacierlodge.com). The lodge was simple but most comfortable, and it had divine views. It was a fun contrast to camping out, but we thought we'd had much more fun than any of the other lodge guests.

Idyllic camping (see also next picture)

Bear with a salmon, just behind our campsite

View from our room at the lodge

As we headed back across the water to Seward (said "sewered", which upsets us) in a water taxi, we were sad to be leaving – it was so perfect that we wanted it to keep going.

Our sturdy vessels

The next day we had another little expedition into Kenai Fjords National Park – a rewarding day trip up beside Exit Glacier to overlook the Harding Icefield, some 480 square kilometers of ice that feeds dozens of glaciers in the area. We've seen many glaciers before, but never had such a great view over an icefield with nunatuk (an "island"in a glacier) being the new word for the week. And that was the end of our time in the Kenai Fjords region. As we left Seward the next day, it was grey and raining, and we felt so pleased (almost smug!) with our fine weather trip.