Monday morning awoke to rain and fog but by about 10 am it looked like it might be clearing a bit and when I checked the hourly forecast it showed only a 70% chance of rain for the afternoon hours. I quickly called one of the bay tour cruises and got myself on one of the five hour cruises which includes lunch at Fox Island.
Tour boat at Fox Island
The Gulf of Alaska has had rough seas for the last week and the longer tours that make a trip to see the Glaciers of Kenai Fjords have been cancelled. These tours would also be better bets for wildlife and some life birds for me. Even on this trip we got a tasted of the rough seas when we were exposed to the open waters from the gulf.
We did see Horned Puffin, Tufted Puffin, Pigeon Guillemot, Pelagic Cormorant, Black-legged Kittiwake Common Murre, Marbled Murrelet plus maybe 10 Bald Eagle. But I saw no life birds for me. We saw Harbor Seas, a group of Steller's Seals. on a rock and many Sea Otter. I also got a brief look at a North Pacific Humpback Whale, but it was very brief. We also saw some Big Horn Sheep. There were a couple glacier with icebergs be we didn't approach close enough for a decent photo.
It' s hard to make photos on a bouncing boat!
More Horned Puffin
Steller's Sea Lions
Mountain Goats
The Scenery
The day after this excursion it started raining and you can barely see the mountains, the rain has continued for the last 24 hours. Forecast is for it continue for about a week. My plans had been to go to Whittier next and possibly take the ferry from there to Valdez or to drive to Valdez but the weather forecast is the same for Valdez. I don't see the point in spending that much money if it is socked in the way it is here, so I'm heading back to Anchourage and then hopefully to Denali for a few days.
Looks like maybe it time to slowly start back. I am told that it is typically dryer in the interior this time of year and the forecast for Fairbanks looks much better.
Posted with Blogsy
Buck's Travel 