Tuesday morning, we headed to the Exit Glacier section of Kenai
Fjords National Park. We had initially planning on hiking some of the
Harding Icefield Trail but with the illness going around we decided to stick
to the lower loops. We also spent some time in the Visitor's Center. They
had a display that demonstrated the density of snow versus compacted snow
versus glacial ice. The glacial ice is a lot more dense!
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Nice view of mountains as we drive out of Seward.
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Map of Kenai Fords and the Harding Icefield.
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Some pretty flowers. It was peaceful walking through the trees,
hearing birds chirping and the water flowing in the distance. There
were signs that showed us where the toe of glacier had been in
different years. It was amazing to see how much it has receded!
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U, Megan and Matthew at the outwash plain. We walked around it a bit.
It was interesting to feel the glacial silt--it is very fine!
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The outwash plain is quite wide.
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U with the toe of Exit Glacier behind him.
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Some nice views from the outwash plain.
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Striations in the rock from the glacier movement.
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Hiking back to the main trail.
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Beautiful views from the trail.
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Me, U, Megan and Matthew with the glacier behind us.
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Exit Glacier
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View of Exit Glacier from the road on our way out.
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U and Me with Exit Glacier.
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We headed over to SeaLife Center after lunch. We learned about the
trackers they put on animals that enable them to learn about behavior,
migration, etc., that they retrieve once the animal dies. We saw salmon at
different stages of development. We also saw a giant red octopus. They had
info about all the animal rescues they did in 2023. Most of the seals were
returned to the wild whereas most of the sea otters could not be
released.
We watched the sea lion training. Pilot, the male, weighs in at around
2000 pounds! In the wild, the males bulk up like that because they will
not eat for a long time during breeding season as they are staking their
claim on the rocks. It's amazing how many animals bulk up and then lost a
large % of their body weight during hibernation or mating or migration.
And us humans consistently need multiple meals a day! Anyhow, Pilot got
right up to the window next to us and growled. It was quite loud!
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Mara, the female, during the training.
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After the training, Mara got up on some rocks. Pilot wanted to join
her but she kept telling him no.
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We went to the aviary. I could spend lots of time there! We learned
that the birds are weighed each morning. The birds line up and willingly hop
on the scale before getting a fish. We learned that puffins can dive up to
250 feet deep and common murres can dive up to 600 feet. Because of this,
their bones are more dense (so they can dive and survive the pressure).
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Female smew
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Tufted puffin
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Female (possibly king eider) getting some sun.
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Couple of tufted puffins
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Tufted puffin and king eider
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Tufted puffin
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Juvenile horned puffin. Me guessed that was what the bird was and a
worker confirmed it!
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They have some cool touch tanks to explore. They have many different
types of sea stars. They definitely have different feels to them--some are
hard while others are quite soft. Sea cucumbers are squishy! Shrimp do not
want to be touched and will run away. Sea urchins are interesting, if a
bit nerve wracking, to touch. (I usually try to avoid touching sea urchins
in the wild since their spines can cause problems.) When touching a sea
urchin, their spines close in around whatever touches them, similar to an
anemone's tentacles. We saw a lot of anemone eating. One anemone tried to
eat Me's and Matthew's finger. It was a bit disconcerting but we were able
to get the tentacles off.
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Matthew touching a sea star.
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Me. The water is quite cold--it is from Resurrection Bay and is
around 44 degrees F.
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Matthew really enjoyed playing in the fishing boat.
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Watching the sea lions swim underwater.
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We enjoyed watching the seals both from above the water and from
the underwater viewing area. Their coat looks different
underwater--shimmery and almost iridescent. Interesting fact about
seals is that their internal body temperature is 100 degrees F. It's
incredible that is the case as they live on ice. Blubber
works!
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Live video from the sea lion rookery we saw on the boat tour the
day before. Nice disclaimer. Basically, this is real life...
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A couple photos of jellies.
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Apparently sea otters are not sweet and cuddly....
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We went back to the sea bird area. There were a couple of amorous
tufted puffins with a common murre that felt it needed to
chaperone.
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Close up of tufted puffins.
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King eider
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We saw them feed the birds. It was cool as those birds can really "fly"
underwater. The common murre are quite shimmery in the water.
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Matthew and Me watch the feeding from down below.
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Horned puffin
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Black Oystercatcher. She keeps to herself and often is not seen by
visitors but Megan spotted her high up in the enclosure.
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Tufted puffins, horned puffin, common murres and pigeon
guillemot
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Tufted puffin splashing around.
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Juvenile long tailed duck
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Black oystercatcher as she flies down to get some food.
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Male smew. Megan called it a storm trooper.
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