ALASKA, PART 2: After leaving the remote, wide-open tundra and towering mountains of Nome, we headed down to the temperate rainforest, glaciers, and towering mountains of the Kenai Peninsula. This required a flight from Nome to Anchorage, then an incredibly scenic drive down to the port city of Seward.
We arrived rather late in the day, so after dinner we checked into our motel and settled in for the night in advance of an early morning boat trip. Come morning, we enjoyed breakfast then made the short walk to the harbor to board the boat for our 8.5-hour tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. Shortly after leaving the boat slip, we spotted our first of many humpback whales of the day, which put on a great show for us just a few hundred feet from the boat. A short while later a mom and calf humpback dazzled us just off the side of the boat!
Throughout the day we ventured up into several fjords, the captain easing the boat to within just a few feet of massive glaciers, steep waterfalls, and majestic coastal mountains.