Alaska Summer 2022: Seward

Seward is heralded as a must do town on the Kenai Peninsula by the tour books and Facebook groups. We had a great time there and there were a few great excursions we took, but I will be a dissenting opinion about the town and the campgrounds. It was a bit surreal to have heard so many things about a place, and then get there and think "what am I missing?". But Seward is still absolutely worth a visit because of the 2 must do and 2 nice to do adventures we participated in. 

We were in Seward for a total of 5 nights. Faster moving travelers or folks with older or no kids could easily get the job done in 2-3 nights depending on which of the below adventures interest you. 

For the first two nights we stayed at the Seward Municipal campground (Marathon campground). So many people talked about this as an amazing campground. Well, it's a parking lot. Literally a gravel parking lot. I did my research so knew this already hence planned to stay just 2 nights because SO MANY PEOPLE raved about the experience, I thought worth investigating the discordance b/t my expectations and the experience of others. We got a site right on the water (I would absolutely NOT recommend staying here unless desperate if you can't get a site on the water). The view was great. There was a rock beach that the kids could play on and they had a great time making "kelp cakes", organizing a pretend fire and restaurant and investigating the kelp with their magnifying glasses. But there is so little space b/t campers there really doesn't end up being much space to hang outside. My suspicion is that the folks who are raving about their campground are the people who are renting RVs for the first ever RV type experience. You can find amazing views throughout this great country of ours by RV that ALSO have privacy that ALSO don't have road nice and that ALSO have plenty of space. So I guess, bottom line is I'm spoiled so this was only a very sub par campground in my eyes.

View from campsite

2 month old baby enjoying view from the warm trailer

The first morning the kids and I walked to the large campground playground while Adam spent $12/load doing laundry at the only laundromat (don't do laundry in Seward!). The weather was quite wet and chilly so we thought it was a good day to go to the SeaLife center. The SeaLife center is a wonderful aquarium that focuses on Alaska wildlife. We all really enjoyed it. It is small but quite well done. Zooey, Fynn and I split off from Adam and Ollie. Z walked around with her journal and copied down interesting facts. We read or stopped by nearly every interpretive display which was nice- a very good bite sized aquarium. It's not a must do, but is a really nice option with kids if you have extra time or don't feel like dealing with cold dampness. Seward, after all, is a temperate rainforest so rain comes often and it rarely gets above 60 degrees.

The next morning was back to our kind of sight seeing- a national park. We headed to Kenai Fjords National Park to do a hike to Exit Glacier. We negotiated a kid mutiny on arrival, but then rallied and visited the excellent visitor's center and with spirits greatly improved by the purchasing of trail mix (a special treat- we generally bring our own food and don't allow purchases at gift shops), we set off on the nice 3 mile hike RT to the glacier. It was a lovely hike- a nice combination of flat forest and rock jumping up and down hills. We enjoyed the river overlooks, touched the cold glacial water, and admired the views of Exit Glacier. Zooey was bummed we didn't do the 8 mile RT walk to the Harding Icefield, Ollie was bummed we took a hike at all, and Fynn happily breastslept (intermittently sleeping and nursing) in his carrier the whole time. All were in good spirits for most of this lovely walk. I believe most national parks are must do's and I do indeed HIGHLY RECOMMEND a visit to Kenai Fjords National Park on foot. 

Gray, cold glacier water

Fynn's first national park passport stamp

Exit Glacier

Scenery similar to Norway

That afternoon we moved to our first rental house of the trip. The kids were so excited to have a bit more indoor space to romp around in and Adam was excited to have a full size kitchen to make dinner. I actually found this particular house harder to be in than the camper - it was a little tight and there was a loft with a ladder so I was constantly stressed about supervising kids on a full story ladder, but it's not all about me, is it? Haha.

Secret rainforest path

Endless creek fun

The next day was intentionally a relax day. After a travel day and two adventure days, it was time for a down day. I tried my best to follow the big kids' lead and let them free play inside until they seemed to be getting on each other's nerves and Fynn need a carrier nap. Then we went outside for an explore. We found an overgrown adventure path in the backyard that went through the rainforest to a glacial creek. The kids had a great time throwing rocks, playing pooh sticks, walking to the island in the middle of the creek, choreographing shows. These kids do SO WELL outside. I really believe all kids do. We came back to this creek 3 times over the next two days- it was that fun. 

Our only agenda item this day was the Seavey's Idadaride tour. All 5 of us really enjoyed this and I would RECOMMEND it for any group with kids. The tour guides were the dog trainers and they really knew what they were talking about. It was so interesting to hear how both the dogs and humans prepare for the Idadrod. For the dogs, it's mostly fun. They chose dogs who love to run so they end up with a fast, good listening group. The human has what sounds like my worst nightmare of a job- stay awake in the dark, cold for days on end. A Seavey won the Iditarod a few years ago with a time of 8 days and some change- he slept on average 2 hours a day during the race (???!!!!???).

2 week old puppy, 2 month old human

2 week old puppy, 4 yo human

The dogs pulled us on a wheeled sled through a 3 mile course in the woods, very fun. Then we got to pet the sled dogs as well as the new puppies- 2 mo old puppies and 2 week old puppies. The 2 week olds were so interesting - their eyes were still closed, the grunted and snuggled just like little Fynnie when we was born. It really emphasized this feeling I'd already had a lot during Fynn's early days- baby mammals are baby mammals no matter the species. They need a ton of mom's resources- love, time, warmth and milk!

After the sled dog excursion, we got King Crab at Z's request for her to try. That was fun and she really liked it!

Our last day in Seward, we did the Major Marine 4 hour wildlife tour in Resurrection Bay. This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and a must do. Honestly, this tour and the longer 7 hour tour if you are with older kids or kidless, would be major reasons to come to Seward. In fact, for groups who prefer fast travel  and just want to get in the most sites in the most places, you could spend just 2 nights in Seward- one day do the Major Marine tour and then stop by Kenai Fjords National Park on the way out of town the next day. We had a near miss where we couldn't find parking for the truck but thankfully the tour staff worked some magic. It was a rainy extremely socked in cloudy day but that was okay. We spent much of the tour inside and went on deck only for animal sightings. We saw otters, puffins, sea lions, seals, a variety of other birds whose names I've forgotten but most amazing of all......we saw bubble net feeding!!!

Some of you may recall our recent Maui trip that included a paddle with Maui Kayak Adventures where we had a banner humpback whale day on kayaks- whales all around us, right in front of us, underneath us, Z and I even got wet from a super close whale's blowhole. Our tour guide that day guides in AK during the summer and he was telling us about this really cool humpback whale behavior called bubble net feeding that only occurs near the North and South Poles. He even sent us video links and documentary recommendations after the tour so we could learn more (watching documentaries about whales while whale watching from your lanai in Maui has to be one of the most relaxing vacay experiences ever). We were all really into it and learned a ton about humpbacks as a result. So bubble net feeding is a learned (not instinctual!) cooperative group feeding behavior that develops among humpback whales who were heretofore stringers. There must be 1 or 2 leaders to guide the behavior and then the other whales will learn to follow. Not all whales do this- it is learned, not instinctual. In fact, bubble net feeding was not seen in the Resurrection Bay Area very often 10 years ago or so. Naturalists think they have identified one particular female whale who popularized the behavior in this region in the past decade. She must have taught it to different groups each year and in recent years it is seen more often. My pictures do NO justice to this amazing behavior, but suffice it to say that we saw 12 humpbacks cooperatively feeding by blowing underwater bubbles which functions as a net to capture herring and then jumping straight up out of the water mouth open to capture the fish. I recognized the behavior right away from the videos. I was so pumped. Zo remembered learning about it as well and really understood that we seeing something special. It was a proud traveling mama moment to have my 9 yr make a connection from something we saw in Hawaii in February to what we were seeing in Alaska in July. I have so much gratitude that we are lucky enough to have moments like this.

Unimpressive pic of an amazing behavior

Sea lions

Overall, Seward was worth the one time trip. I will not be a repeat customer but if you are in the Kenai Peninsula for the first time, you should consider a visit for the reasons mentioned above.