Best Place to See Whales in Alaska: Kenai Fjords
Ice, Snow Covers Most of the Park, but Wildlife Still finds a Home.
Apr 27, 2009
Kenai Fjords National Park is enjoyed by most visitors from wildlife cruises on Resurrection Bay. Although the park is more than 607,000 acres, more than 60 percent is snow, ice and water.
As a result the rocky coastline and magnificence of the glaciers is often best seen from water during a narrated six hour tour into Aialik Bay.
Wildlife Viewing at Kenai FjordsMountain goats are common around the areas of Cheval Island and Pilot Rock. Cruises in late May and June are best for seeing these critters before the animals and their babies move higher into grassier areas later in the summer.
However, early summer is not a good time to see whales do their massive breaches, coming up out of the water in a gymnastic performance that would score a ten at the Olympic Games. To see that, schedule a visit in August or beyond. Their grace in the water is so effortless, but as they surface to both exhale and inhale in those few seconds, the explosion of sound from their blow hole resembles the struggle for oxygen by the most unfit, out-of-shape weekend warrior.
Early summer is when hungry whales are intent upon eating and will surface briefly every six or seven minutes, just long enough to fill their lungs, before heading back down, often flapping their massive tail or “fluke” as they go.
Cheval Island and Pilot Rock are also key places for bird watching. Puffins are very common here.
Kenai Fjords on FootThe only part of the park open to auto traffic is the road to Exit Glacier. It's a good place to get out and walk, taking a ranger-led tour along the edge of the glacier to learn more about how the moving ice has reshaped the landscape.
Kenai Fjords by AirFlight seeing tours are common everywhere in Alaska, but a tour along the coast here is one of the best investments of time and money. The flights cross the massive Harding Ice Field, providing the best visual of the path that glaciers take to the ocean.
Lodging at Kenai FjordsOvernight accommodations are available in a primitive cabin operated by the National Park Service, as well as small lodge with more modern amenities operated by Kenai Fjords Tours, an Alaska heritage tour company. Both properties are accessible only by water.
The 19 national parks of Alaska are spectacular in a way that distinguishes them from all of the other 360 units of the National Park System. Technically, this difference can be attributed to the vastness of the land - nearly 54 million acres total, and a management style that must adjust to such magnitude.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
