{"id":2103,"date":"2022-07-25T21:29:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T21:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/?p=2103"},"modified":"2022-07-25T21:30:01","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T21:30:01","slug":"week-10-seward-and-kenai-fjords-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/25\/week-10-seward-and-kenai-fjords-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 10: Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It was another very rainy week in the Kenai, but we managed to do a few really cool activities between the rain. We visited the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alaskasealife.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alaska Sealife Center<\/a> (definitely recommended), and did a 6 hour <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alaskacollection.com\/day-tours\/kenai-fjords-tours\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kenai Fjords Boat Tour,<\/a> where we saw Orcas going after sea lions. The boat trip was a bit long and expensive for what you get to see, but still glad we did it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The camping options in Seward are pretty unusual. The city runs <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofseward.us\/departments\/parks-recreation\/campgrounds\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.cityofseward.us\/departments\/parks-recreation\/campgrounds\" target=\"_blank\">5 back-to-back campgrounds<\/a> with a total of over 300 sites along the waterfront, many with great views of the bay, for an outrageous $40\/night for &#8216;dry camping (no hookups) and $55\/night with hookups). This land was part of a huge railroad yard that was completely destroyed in the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1964_Alaska_earthquake\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1964_Alaska_earthquake\" target=\"_blank\">1964 earthquake<\/a> and tsunami, the most powerful earthquake recorded in\u00a0North American\u00a0history (magnitude 9.2), and the second\u00a0most powerful earthquake recorded\u00a0in world history. You can also park on the street near the Sealife center for free. There are free showers in the middle campground, but much nicer showers for $2 at the Harbormaster office. We paid for 3 nights along the water, but our 4th night in Seward we just did free parking on the street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On both our first day and last day in Seward area, we had great meals and cocktails at the 50&#8217;s style <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/flamingoalaska.com\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/flamingoalaska.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Flamingo Lounge<\/a> with it&#8217;s huge decanter collection.  This restaurant would be right at home in San Francisco in terms of style and food quality. We also enjoyed hanging out and meeting locals at the <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/LsDAyqmNJToSPND66\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/LsDAyqmNJToSPND66\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yukon Bar<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We drove down to the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/3CzYG7bmcxP3ZC8N7\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/3CzYG7bmcxP3ZC8N7\" target=\"_blank\">Lowell Point State Recreation Area <\/a>a bit south of town, where I was able to take my folding kayak out on Resurrection Bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also spent 3 nights just outside of Seward on the way to the Exit Glacier in a fantastic <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ioverlander.com\/places\/19527-at-exit-glacier-road-near-in-the-river\" target=\"_blank\">free camp spot along the river<\/a> with beautiful views of the valley (when it was not fogged in, which was about half the time). This was a great base for doing the incredible <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/kefj\/planyourvisit\/harding_icefield_trail.htm\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/kefj\/planyourvisit\/harding_icefield_trail.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Harding Ice Field Trail <\/a>(my favorite hike so far in Alaska). I also hiked the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/uHLwUZAhq44v5t5bA\" target=\"_blank\">Resurrection River Trail<\/a>, which was beautiful until the thorny <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/wildflowers\/plant-of-the-week\/oplopanax_horridus.shtml\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/wildflowers\/plant-of-the-week\/oplopanax_horridus.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Devil&#8217;s Club<\/a> plant took over the trail. Luckily there is no poison oak\/ivy in Alaska, but you want to avoid brushing against Devil&#8217;s Club as well.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photos albums for this week: <a href=\"https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/dWLwWME7xyxTwedN8\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/dWLwWME7xyxTwedN8\">Seward and Kenai Fjords Boat Trip <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/cgzQpg2S9ff32u4i9\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/cgzQpg2S9ff32u4i9\">Harding Ice Field Trail<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"571\" src=\"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220718_144308-1024x571.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220718_144308-1024x571.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220718_144308-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220718_144308-768x428.jpg 768w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220718_144308-1536x856.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220718_144308-2048x1141.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>View of Holgate Glacier from the Boat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"553\" src=\"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220722_150459-1024x553.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220722_150459-1024x553.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220722_150459-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220722_150459-768x415.jpg 768w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220722_150459-1536x829.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220722_150459-2048x1106.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Harding Ice Field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220720_154207-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2127\" srcset=\"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220720_154207-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220720_154207-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220720_154207-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220720_154207-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220720_154207-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Free Camp area near Exit Glacier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was another very rainy week in the Kenai, but we managed to do a few really cool activities between the rain. We visited the Alaska Sealife Center (definitely recommended), and did a 6 hour Kenai Fjords Boat Tour, where we saw Orcas going after sea lions. The boat trip was a bit long andContinue reading &rarr;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2103"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2128,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions\/2128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}