Alaska-Seward to Girdwood

Let’s jump into day 3. If you have no idea what I’m talking about then go back to my previous post. Believe me, you don’t want to skip Homer.

Day 3: First of all, we experienced several itinerary changes over the 2 weeks. One of those was on this day. We arrived in Seward from Homer only to find out that our helicopter tour and glacier dog sledding was canceled due to lack of snow on the glacier. The company recommended that we try a little farther north. Alaska Helicopter Tours was able to provide that amazing experience we had been looking forward to just a few days later than planned. With the dog sledding canceled, our day became relaxed, and we were able to rest before our day cruise on day 4.

Day 4: I highly recommend booking this: Kenai Fjords National Park Tour Cruise | Kenai Fjords Tours (alaskacollection.com). Incredible views, glaciers, sea creatures, and other wildlife cannot cover how amazing this tour really is. There’re a few options for different cruises, we went for the Kenai Fjords Tour. We saw Dall porpoises that look like tiny killer whales, a fin whale, sea lions, seals, otters, puffins, and a few other birds. It felt like the jackpot for sightings on this tour. Unfortunately, most of what we saw is not documented, but find below bald eagles and some blurry sea lions. Fun fact: sea lions don’t bark like seals; they actually sound like a growl/roar.

This tour not only covers the Kenai Fjords National Park, but you also pass through the Gulf of Alaska and find several waterfalls on your way to the glacier. Isn’t that water beautiful?

Aialik Glacier is 600 feet high and about a mile wide. We saw it from around half a mile away and it still seemed majestic. Our captain had perfect timing as we got to eat our lunch at the glacier. Through the binoculars, we also found a ton of seals, however they mostly looked like black dots from our distance. Wait for it…. the glacier calved right in the middle!! That was amazing to experience between seeing this massive glacier calve and hearing the ice fall, it felt surreal. [The picture on the right is zoomed in slightly and has better color, but the one on the left better shows how wide it is]

Day 5: At the time we thought that day 4 was the perfect day, but soon realized there wasn’t just one. After our tour, we drove up to Girdwood, a small ski resort town and checked into our VRBO. The morning of day 5 we set to find the train station. Find the link here: Alaska Railroad | Alaskan Tours & Vacations | Train Packages. The Glacier discovery train from Girdwood to the Spencer Glacier Whistle stop provided the perfect day trip. Spectacular views of mountains and valleys were along the way to Spencer Glacier. The route goes through the Whitter tunnel which is a great place to stop for lunch going or for dinner on the way back. Spencer Glacier resides among the Chugach National Forest and is an easy hike. If you’re super adventurous and have the time, book the rafting trip down the river. It looked like a lot of fun and will probably make the itinerary on the next Alaska trip. Another adventurous option if there’s time is the cabin overlooking Spencer Glacier and the surrounding area. We didn’t know it existed until we saw way up the mountain, but it definitely looked like the ideal retreat from civilization.

That’s all for day 5. On day 6, we packed up the car and headed to McCarthy. Keep an eye out for the next portion of our Alaskan Adventure.