Kenai Fjords National Park

Today was a six hour boat tour through Kenai Fjords National Park which was created in the early '80s. It is home to the largest contiguous ice field in Alaska, 700 sqaure miles. It feeds over 30 massive glaciers. Tons of marine wildlife call this home, more pictures here to tell the story...

The first thing we were treated to were several sea otters lounging about without a care in the world.

Next on the list were two Fin Whales, named for this tiny dorsal fin. Evidently these are the second largest animals on the planet with only the blue whales being larger.

There were several different small colonies of sea lions.

Then we found a small pod of Killer whales that had never been identified in the park before.

Killers on patrol.

There are two different species of puffins in the park, these were the Tufted Puffins, the other species is the Horned Puffin.

The third whale species of the day was this humpback heading down for a deep dive.

And then came the Holgate Glacier at the end. Actually one of the smallest glaciers in the park at roughly a mile long, a half mile wide and well over 500' feet tall at it's face.

Evidently the blue color unique to large tidal glaciers is caused by a specific UV color trapped in the ice and reemitted when it becomes exposed.

This chunk of glacial ice weighed roughly 30lbs. Evidently glacial ice is approximately 30 times more dense than the ice in our freezers due to the immense pressure.

And best of all, fresh made margaritas with the purest ice in the planet!

Yes please....