Seward, Alaska--July 13-19, 2010

From Hope, Alaska to Seward it was a short drive. We tried to stop and geocache along the way, but they were on the wrong side of the road for us to pull the rv close to them. Once we got to Seward we headed toward the waterfront. Bob had read about campsites overlooking Resurrection Bay. We were lucky enough to get a site on the front row.What a view!We were parked next to the small park commemorating the Iditarod Trail--Mile 0.I put the shades in the front window so we could see out and no one could see into the rv.The first thing we did after setting up was to walk into the town of Seward. There was a nice walk/bike path all the way through town. One of the shopkeepers told us it was the coldest summer in the 24 years she had lived in Alaska!

Our first morning in Seward, we saw this out our front window....The eagle stayed and ate seaweed until he had his fill. People wandering down to take pictures didn't scare him away.
One day while in Seward, we packed a picnic lunch and headed toward Exit Glacier to geocache and hike. We found several caches on the way to Exit Glacier. One was at the overlook before entering the national park.Once we reached the park, we took the mile trail to see the glacier up close. At one time people were allowed to walk on the toe of the glacier, but the way the ice is melting now, you are only allowed to look. Along the trail, we noticed that the cow parsnip (which we have seen everywhere--lower 48 included) is taller than I am.From Exit Glacier we decided to hike a short way along Resurrection River Trail. There was a geocache located about a mile into the trail. One of the first things we saw along the trail was bear scat--and it wasn't from a cub, either! We turned a corner and there was more! We hiked the trail, got the cache, and hiked back to the car. We never saw any animals along the trail--just bear and moose scat.

Another day we spent visiting the Alaska SeaLife Center. It was located a parking lot away from our rv! They had interesting exhibits and hands-on displays of baleen, whale vertebrae, teeth, animal hides, etc.
We finally had a nice day-weather wise that is--so we went back to Exit Glacier to hike UP to Marmot Meadows. This is one of the bridges we had to cross on the trail. It went over a small waterfall.
It was a great hike! Right before we reached the meadows, we came upon a large group of people just standing around. One of them finally told us that we were stopped so a bear could clear the trail. We never did see the bear as we were behind 15-20 people on a narrow trail!From our lookout rock at Marmot Meadows we watched as a group honed their ice climbing skills on the glacier.We had another nice day while in Seward and used it to hike Grayling Lake Trail just north of Seward. The trail leads to 4 lakes--Grayling, Meridian, Leech and Long.

We took the trail to Grayling and then backtracked to go to Meridian. The trails were in great condition. There were bridges and boards where the trail was muddy. We had to cross a few small streams by walking on rocks. Once again, we didn't see any big animals, however, we saw a mother duck and her ducklings swimming near the edge of Grayling Lake.

When we backtracked to go to Meridian Lake, we saw a blaze for Iditarod National Historic Trail! We saw this blaze and one more--we have no idea where it went from that second blaze!Friday and Sunday were cruise ship days in Seward. A Celebrity cruise ship docked on Friday and a Holland America docked on Sunday. We took a picture of the Celebrity cruise ship as it left port.We enjoyed our visit to Seward, but we didn't enjoy the cool, windy weather nor the rain. We got out as much as we could, but this is what it looked like most of the days we were there!We did have entertainment while we were there. These two sea otters swam in front of our site daily.
We enjoyed our week in Seward. From Seward we planned to go to Homer, but you know how are plans are....flexible!