The information
below is to give you a better understanding of the locations
we will be visiting during our week-long adventure in
the Kenai Fjords. Please contact us if you have questions
about any of our locations and/or activities.
Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) is a nonprofit
organization dedicated to preserving Alaska’s wildlife
through public education. AWCC takes in injured and
orphaned animals year-round and provides spacious enclosures
and quality animal care. Animals that cannot be released
into the wild are given a permanent home at the center.
AWCC provides visitors with the opportunity to view
Alaskan wildlife up close. Amateur photographers have
the opportunity to take award winning photographs while
animals display their natural, “wild”, behavior. Coyotes
peer out from behind the brush while a bald eagle swoops
in on the salmon remains left by a grizzly bear. Wood
Bison plod through 65 acres of tidal flat terrain, as
part of a program that will one day restore the species
to the Alaskan wilderness....Want to learn more? Visit
their website: http://awcc.org/home.html
Seward Alaska
Situated at the head of Resurrection Bay on the Kenai
Peninsula, Seward is one of Alaska’s oldest and most
scenic communities. Known as the 'Gateway to Kenai Fjords
National Park' Seward is a picturesque town located
126 miles south of Anchorage. Visitors can easily reach
us via the Seward Highway Scenic Byway, the Alaska Railroad,
or by bus, air, or cruise ship.
Seward is nestled at the foot of Mount Marathon and
the scenic shoreline of Resurrection Bay. Resurrection
bay is a restless, fickle body of water teeming with
abundant species of fish and frolicking marine mammals.
In 1792 the bay was sighted and named on Resurrection
Day, Easter Sunday, by Alexander Baranof, the most famous
of Alaska’s early Russian explorer-governors. Against
a backdrop of peaks and passes sculpted by Ice Age glaciers,
Seward’s ice-free harbor has long served as a natural
gateway to the vast scenic and resource riches of Alaska’s
huge interior. Read more about Seward: http://www.sewardak.org/history.htm
Exit Glacier
Exit Glacier, remnant of a larger glacier once extending
to Resurrection Bay, is one of several rivers of ice
flowing off the icefield. Active, yet retreating, it
provides the perfect setting to explore. Here are found
newly exposed, scoured, and polished bedrock and a regime
of plant succession from the earliest pioneer plants
to a mature forest of Sitka spruce and western hemlock.
Exit Glacier is a half mile wide, dynamic river of
ice whose source is the 700 square mile Harding Icefield.
This outlet glacier flows out of the higher Harding
Icefield and down the U shaped glacial valley, a distance
of about 3 miles. As the ice moves forward, it also
descends approximately 2500 feet to the Exit Creek outwash
plain. The glacier moves forward about 2 feet per day,
carrying all sizes of rock material plucked from the
underlying rock and side walls, as well as material
falling from the valley sides and coming to rest on
the glacier's surface. Rocks embedded in the bottom
of the moving ice continually gouge and grind the underlying
base rock to flower size particles that give Exit Creek
its milky color.
Read more about Exit Glacier:
http://www.nps.gov/kefj/planyourvisit/exit-glacier.htm
http://www.athousandwords.us/Exit.htm
Caines Head State Recreation Area
Caines Head State Recreation Area, the scenic site
of an abandoned World War II fort, can be reached by
boat or foot from Seward. The massive headland rises
650 feet above Resurrection Bay, against a back drop
of rolling alpine meadows and sharp peaks, giving way
to a sweeping view of the North Pacific Ocean.
The shale-covered, forest-framed beaches of Caines Head
have long been stopping points for boaters and fisherman.
But early in World War II, as the territory of Alaska
was attacked and occupied by Imperial Japanese ground
forces, Caines Head and other Resurrection Bay vantages
became strategic spots for defending the Port of Seward.
The port was the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad,
a critical supply line for the war effort and for Alaskans.
Visitors are invited to explore the remains of Fort
McGilvray, the South Beach Garrison and the many natural
attractions of this 6,000 acre state recreation area.
Read more about Caines Head: http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/caineshd
Kenai Fjords National Park
At the tip of the Kenai Peninsula lies a land where
the ice age still lingers. In Kenai Fjords, glaciers,
earthquakes, and ocean storms are the architects. Ice
worms, bears and whales make their home in this land
of constant change. Native Alutiiq used these resources
to nurture a life entwined with the sea.
Read more: http://www.nps.gov/kefj
Kenaitze Tribe
The Kenaitze Indian Tribe is federally recognized,
under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA), as
amended for Alaska in 1936, as a sovereign independent
nation. Tribal members number over 1236, many live on
the Kenai Peninsula and in Anchorage, others live throughout
Alaska and as far away as the states of New York, Florida,
Texas, and California.
Read More: http://www.kenaitze.org/KBeq/index.php
Guide Service in Seward Alaska
Exit Glacier Guides
http://www.exitglacierguides.com/
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