• Amy PackerAlaska!Traveler
    Oceanna, our ride for the day.
    Entering into Northwestern Fjord. Absolutely stunning.Grateful that we got to go on this adventure together.Northwestern FjordNature always finds a way - these flowers sprouted all over the place from cracks in rocks.Loved the rock formations that have been cut by the glaciers over the millennia.Paddled up to this waterfall and felt its spray.Making our way closer to the glacier.For scale, zoom in on the bottom left of the glacier to see the tour boat down there.Watched a few small parts of this glacier calve.Glacial wind picked up!Survived the baby icebergs.Is it a whale or is it just some glacier ice?Curious little harbor seals kept tabs on us.Safe to say this was one of the highlights for us both.The bottom formations look like rocks, but they are glaciers. So stunning."Zombie glaciers" were kind of haunting, but a cool backdrop for our lunch.Never had a picnic lunch in a kayak on a fjord before!Loaded back onto the boat from the water.

    Day 8 pt. 1, Glacier Kayaking

    July 22 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

    With Papa along on the trip, Nate and I had something we rarely get while traveling -- the opportunity to do something for just the two of us! When we started talking about things to do in Seward, we had different ideas. He was pretty keen on whale watching while I was more interested in seeing glaciers. As luck would have it, a friend recommended an excursion that gave us both. While it was one outing, I split it into two posts because they were both so extraordinary.

    We headed out with Liquid Adventures on a small boat with 7 other passengers & 3 crew/guides. They told us because of the winds, we would be heading to Northwestern Fjord, a little further out into the fjords than planned. The entire ride was incredible, but entering into the fjord was jaw dropping. I stayed outside in the front as long as I could, soaking it all in.

    Eventually they made us come in to gear up for getting on the water. Our day was unusually warm, so we were able to mostly wear just rain gear. The captain pulled up to a rocky beach and we all hopped off, getting our first glimpses of the glaciers and the ground they cut while the crew unloaded the boats. I picked up a few rocks that I thought the boys would like and we headed onto the water.

    It took us a few minutes to get used to tandem kayaking, but we eventually found our groove. Our guide took us along the edge of the fjord, pointing out waterfalls and rock formations. The scale of Northwestern Glacier is truly incredible. It took some squinting to realize one of the bigger tour boats was up next to the glacier, when I saw that my jaw nearly dropped as I began to understand the magnitude of it.

    As we paddled closer, chunks of ice started floating by. We paddle up to about half a mile from the glacier before we felt the glacial wind really rev up. At that point our guide redirected us back down the fjord and we bid farewell to Northwestern Glacier and assumed that we would be done. Wrong-o!

    We paddled a couple more miles and much to everyone's delight, a couple of harbor seals popped up, keeping tabs on us the second half of the trip. Eventually we rounded a corner to discover huge rock-like figures or what our guide called "zombie glaciers." These are glaciers that have broken off from the top half, but reconstituted to form something kind of new. Still ice and rock, just a little mixed.

    We finished this part of the morning with a picnic lunch of delicious burritos wraps while sitting on our kayaks in the middle of the fjord. Truly an amazing and unforgettable experience.    Read more