When I was eight, my best friend’s father used to zip us to Stellwagen Bank in his maroon cigarette boat on humid New England summer afternoons. He’d turn off the engine, and we’d drop our jaws at the riveting sight of dozens of humpback whales surfacing just feet away
from us.
At twenty-three, I still feel the tingle of goose bumps when a whale breaches or slips its tail fluke into the sea. A daylong boat cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park at the beginning of my eighth week in Alaska brought me up-close again to these gargantuan marine creatures. We spotted a few humpback and gray whales; plenty of puffins, murres, cormorants, bald eagles, auklets, guillemots, and murrelets; a sea otter, harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and Dall’s porpoise. As a New England-now-California girl, I’m extremely fortunate to have already glimpsed many of these animals.
Hence the best part of my day was Northwestern Glacier. Our boat literally plowed through clouds of haze— and past harbor seals sleeping on icebergs— to reach this tidewater glacier at the very end of Northwestern Fjord. Watching the glacier calve, or release gigantic blocks of ice that roared into the ocean below, was one of the most moving half hours of my life.
Our first wildlife sighting as we left Seward marina— a playful sea otter in Resurrection Bay!
Rock spire
A whale "footprint"! (I failed to capture any fins.)
Weather station
Natural patterns and colors
The algae and guano look like an abstract painting!
Harbor seals
Harbor seals
Steller sea lions
Flying puffin!
More colorful patterns
Neat rock formation
Entering Northwestern Fjord!
Northwestern Fjord
Northwestern Fjord
Northwestern Fjord
Northwestern Glacier!
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
I loved photographing patterns of light.
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Northwestern Glacier
Can you spot the little dots of harbor seals?
Harbor seals on ice
Harbor seal
Harbor seal
Harbor seal
Harbor seal
Sun salutations
Leaving Northwestern Fjord
Northwestern Fjord
Tall waterfall
Waterfall
Back in Resurrection Bay
Resurrection Bay
Maybe someday Restless will sail here.
Resurrection Bay
Farewell Seward!
Haley Smith Kingsland 