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Published: July 31st 2011
After Darren and I met up with our brother Ryan, we had a quick overview with our guides at Kayak Adventures Worldwide in Seward, a solid dinner, and then an early wake up to meet our boat into the fjords. We had chosen to head all the way out to the Northwestern Fjord; it is an hour longer ride but has substantially fewer visitors (we only saw one other group of kayakers during the four day trip) and excellent wild life viewing. Along the three-hour trip we had amazing views of sea lions, sea otters, humpbacks (which we saw in abundance every day we were out there) and tons of other wild life. The two highlights on the way out were the pod of orcas we were able to follow for a while and hear via an underwater microphone and the porpoises that rode the bow’s wake for nearly twenty minutes.
By the time we had reached our camp for the evening the rain had started and continued to soak us for the next day and a half. As we were well warned for the dampness, this didn’t stop us from venturing to a nearby glacier and hiking up to
its face, kayaking a mile down the fjord to check out a few glaciers, and then spinning around an island only to bump into our first humpback viewing from a kayak.
The next morning we started out on a 16 mile paddle past the glaciers we had seen the night before and into a field of icebergs as we headed towards Northwestern Glacier (for which the fjord is named). With three to four thousand foot mountains (cliffs) descending from their peaks directly into the bright aqua waters of the fjord, we approached the four to five hundred foot faces of the glaciers and sat in front of them for several hours as they continued to spew icebergs right in front of our kayaks.
That evening, after the several mile kayak out of the iceberg field to a new campsite, we headed out for a post-dinner kayak. Fifteen minutes into the kayak we came across a bait ball; several hundred sea gulls were diving into the water after schools of fish swarming the waters. A young humpback came in, started feeding, and for the next hour and a half we sat 100 yards from a humpback as it fed.
It would lunge feed, showing its mouth, devouring fish (and birds!), and then diving again with its tail (fluke) showing as it went down. (Quick note: it is extremely hard to get good pictures of whales!) At one point, I looked up and realized I was surrounded by hundred foot glaciers, descending from thousand foot peaks, with icebergs surrounding me, while seals and sea otters watched me watch a humpback feed. It was a mind-blowing experience, which the photos can never capture!
On the third day we did a nice long kayak across the fjord, checked out a few bays, saw some humpbacks, sea otters, and seals, and eventually took a break on the moraine that separates the fjord from the bay. Hiking the dozen or so yards to the top we saw five humpbacks bubble netting fish on the other side; basically they would deep dive, blow bubbles in a cylinder trapping the bait in the middle, then the five of them would come up through the middle and surface with their mouths wide open. We jumped in our kayaks quickly and made our way there in time to see them stop feeding and begin to breach one
after the other, two at a time, and one even breached four times consecutively.
After camping at an amazing beach, we spent the last day kayaking to the beautiful, waterfall filled, Cataract Cove a ways out of the fjord. During the ride back to town we caught up with more humpbacks and another pod of orcas (which included a few baby killer whales!). The trip was undoubtedly one of the most unique, phenomenal adventures I’ve ever taken. If you ever find the opportunity to kayak into a fjord, surrounded by thousand foot cliffs, and to view enormous ocean mammals, I highly recommend the experience!
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Courtney Peterson
non-member comment
Ohhhh beautiful AK!
Love your travel blog! Ryan just turned me on to it. Oh how I miss AK. I paddled 10 days in Glacier Bay one summer when I lived in Skagway. Living seasonally in AK allowed me to travel the world for many months at a time. Now back in WI working in administration I can only swing a couple weeks at a time. I need a new career. Ha. Oh well at least I get two weeks in Costa next month. You favorits?