Park #2 in Alaska!
Trip Date: September 2016
This trip was absolutely amazing! I saw so much wildlife I would highly recommend taking one of these day cruises. It was beautiful! Prepare yourself for some awesome pictures.
We started out by camping in Seward. Our campsite was really close to the water! Loved the view of the mountains in the background. 
We first hit up the wildlife preserve, and I got to take some amazing pictures of puffins! These birds are amazing. They have the densest bone mass of any bird. They fly for short distances, and they can dive hundreds of feet below the surface! They look so majestic when they dive – like they should have been fish but got wings by accident.
Its sort of hard to see but I got to see the sign for mile 0 of the Iditarod trail. We also drove over to Exit Glacier and got to see this massive glacier up close! You can see some people over to the right for scale. This glacier has been shrinking and even still it was impressive to see.
While eating the best fish and chips I had ever had (halibut caught that day!), we were interrupted by something happening out by the dock. We all crowded over by the window to see what we later learned was a 250 lb halibut! It was certainly the biggest fish I had ever seen.
Day 2 was the cruise I had been waiting for! It was everything I hoped. Our first wildlife sighting was a bald eagle. The huge boat was suddenly thrown into reverse and everyone crowded over to one side. Despite my excitement at the beginning of the trip, I had now seen more than 20 bald eagles, so I certainly wasn’t as thrilled as before but I snapped a picture anyway!
Next wildlife sitting was even more exciting! A huge group of sea lions! That massive one even looked like it had a big old bite out of its back. Got a sweet action shot when they all decided to jump down off the rock and into the water.
We got to see a bunch of glaciers in the fjords. It was cool to see how they were continuing to change. Another fast stop of the cruise ship and we all ran over to see a pod of Dall porpoises. The tour guide told me not to bother taking pictures because they are too fast. I sure showed him though, check out the two pictures I got! I may or may not have been using sport mode and had to delete about 100 with nothing but water. Still a success! 
Up next I have a picture that looks like nothing – but it means a whole lot to me. It was my first sighing of a humpback whale. I swear that I saw it surface here seconds before I was able to get my camera up. I will probably always doubt it since I don’t have a picture to prove….but that just means I will have to go back and see one again! 
Here are some other pictures I took in the fjords. I LOVE these, they are some of my favorite. The color of the water is just perfect.
We got back and I was pretty cold from being out on top of the boat in the wind and rain for like 4 hours, but I was also stunned from everything that we got to see. I would go again in an instant! I still have 6 more parks to see in Alaska, and based on the first two I am anxious to go back.
Kelsey's Climb to 59 (+4) 