K ENAI PENINSULA, Alaska – In Alaska, visitors make sport of watching ice melt.
All along the coastal waters, giant glaciers push down from snow-covered mountains and ice fields, calving icebergs the size of office buildings.
It’s a spectacular sight. Creaks, groans and thunderous claps echo throughout fjords and valleys as the ice breaks off, falling hundreds of feet into lakes and bays.
Watching glaciers calve requires patience. Afternoons go by with no action.
But during a recent weeklong visit to the Kenai Peninsula, a few hours south of Anchorage, I saw plenty of glacier action along with other iconic Alaskan sites.
Breaching humpback whales, black bear, moose, eagles and endless mountain ranges are within easy reach for visitors.
For my first trip to the largest state, I decided to go exploring in a rental car. There are many bus tours and cruise ship packages that offer a different way to see the state.
I wanted the time and flexibility to stop and look at views, to come across wildlife quietly and to set my own schedule.
This way, I got off the beaten track and was able to get a little lost in this vast, magnificent and beautiful state.
A friend and I flew into Anchorage, the state’s largest city, and decided not to explore the city but to get out of town as quickly as we could.
Although we had many choices – Denali National Park and Prince William Sound to name two – we chose to go to the Kenai Peninsula, easily accessible by car and with lots to do.
It’s about a three-hour drive along the Turnagain Arm to Seward, a fishing village at the head of Resurrection Bay next to Kenai Fjords National Park.
Surrounded by snow-covered peaks, Seward is the best spot to catch a day cruise into the park to see glaciers and the area’s rich marine life.
We arrived in town on a cold, drizzly day and spent the afternoon at the Alaska SeaLife Center.
I enjoyed learning about preservation efforts in the area. The center, paid for in part by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Settlement Fund, is a good way to become acquainted with the area.
The next day, under slightly clearer skies, we took a small-boat day cruise to see the animals in their natural habitat.
We paid a bit more to take a Captain’s Choice tour with Kenai Fjords Cruises to be on a smaller boat with fewer people. Almost immediately, we began seeing wildlife.
During the nine hours aboard with about a dozen passengers, we saw several humpbacks, including a mother and calf.
There are three parts to observing the giant mammals: Whale searching, whale watching, “and a whole lot of whale waiting,” said Tiffany Thomas, the boat’s captain.
We spent close to an hour total, drifting and waiting for the animals to surface.
Twice we saw humpbacks breach. That’s when they jump head first out of the water trying to scoop up as many tiny organisms as possible, then splash down.
Lunchtime was spent bobbing among chunks of ice about 1/4 mile away from the giant Aialik tidal glacier. The massive moving field of ice towered as much as 600 feet above the fjord.
Thomas carefully navigated the 45-foot boat through a maze of icebergs, growlers and bergy bits, different names for floating ice depending on the size.
We passed seals, sea lions and puffins. With binoculars, we watched eagles soar and saw a black bear climbing an impossibly steep cliff.
The next day, on our way out of Seward, we stopped at the Exit Glacier. A short hike and we were standing almost touching distance from the glacier.
If we had more time, we would have taken a day hike several miles up to see views of the Harding Ice Field, accessible above the Exit Glacier visitor center.
Homer, at the other end of the peninsula, is a fishing and arts community on Kachemak Bay.
The Spit, the gateway to fishing and exploring areas accessible only by boat, sits a few miles off from town. It’s loaded with tourist shops and restaurants and a popular watering hole, the Salty Dawg.
From the Spit, we hopped a water taxi and spent the next three days in and around Kachemak Bay State Park, the largest coastal state park in the United States.
My favorite experience was going to the Grewingk Glacier.
We got there after a relatively easy morning hike and beautiful kayak trip.
We ate lunch almost close enough to the glacier to touch it. Then, sure enough, just before launching the inflatable kayaks for the trip back, a chunk of ice came crumbling down.
We found this spectacular spot with the help of Jordan Hess, a friendly tour guide and owner of the Hideaway Cove Wilderness Lodge.
Hess, 38, has been bringing visitors on this trip for eight years.
“What we wanted to do when we came here is show people Alaska,” Hess said.
Last year, he and his wife bought a remote waterfront property next to the park.
He built a half-dozen cozy lodges that sit on the water’s edge. There’s a wood-fired sauna and a yurt, a round, tent-like building, for communal meals.
The draw is the quiet, the views and the easy access to the “mile-wide glacier in our backyard,” Hess said.
It’s easy not to miss having electricity, especially with the state’s famous midnight sun shining throughout the summer.
Getting away from it all at Hideaway Cove was a real highpoint of the trip.
We spent two more days in downtown Homer.
I went fishing – it is the halibut capital of the world – and my friend rented a bike.
There are lots of art galleries and some good restaurants.
We ate at Cafe Cups and Panarelli’s Deli, both friendly and featuring good local food.
The Saturday Farmers Market was a fun blend of music, local produce and arts and crafts.
Be sure to stop by the Pratt Museum. The displays or art, natural history and local culture were well worth it.
One of the area’s original homesteaders in the area, Jill Greer, volunteers at the museum.
She said she never intended to settle in Alaska.
“It wasn’t my idea, it was my husband’s,” she said. “I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t think so.’”
All those years ago, she said they’d leave if she didn’t like it.
Now, old enough to be one of the original homesteaders, as she says, she’s an ambassador to the region.
When I go back to Alaska, and I know I will, I’ll likely try to stay at places where I can make my own meals rather than relying on the mostly over-priced and mediocre restaurants.
I’ll certainly never want to join a bus trip or go on a cruise, when it’s so easy to plan a trip on one’s own, avoid crowds and see so much.
“Some folks say it’s the most beautiful place on Earth,” Greer said of Alaska. “But I don’t know what they’re comparing it to.”
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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