We took the "Kenai Star" out into Resurrection Bay
Day 5: Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Resurrection Bay Marine Tour
This time the cruise wasn't cancelled. The forecast only called for 6-foot waves — the day before had seen 14-foot waves. While we were waiting for the boat to depart we caught a glimpse of two bald eagles perched on the masts of two ships docked in the harbor. About 10 minutes into our cruise, we saw a sea otter who was high-tailing it away from the boat. During the trip we also saw countless sea birds (including puffins which are really cute), Stellar's sea lions, harbor seals, Dall's porpoises (which look like little orcas), and we caught the tail of a humpback whale as it swam away from the boat. We also pulled up close to the Holgate glacier and got to hear it rumble and creak as it calved big blocks of ice into the sea. It was gigantic and we felt infinitesimally small looking up at it.
After the cruise we decided that we would try to visit the Chena Hot Springs before we had to be in Denali in two days. From Seward the drive to Chena is about 12 hours north past Fairbanks so we hit the road. We drove for about 5 hours that night and found a secluded spot next to a river and camped for free.