10 Day Alaska Expedition - 3 days Sea Kayaking and Camping in Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound is more beautiful than pictures can show. I was constantly lamenting on our Alaska trip that no videos or pictures I was capturing were doing it justice. Just about anywhere we were you could look in a full circle and be stunned by the beauty in every direction. It's hard to capture that with a camera. The other day I shared a side trip in which we took a small plane to Mt McKinley (Denali) base camp. Check it out here.
Now I'm starting at the beginning of the trip. We met up with our group which consisted of two other couples from Australia and two guides in Anchorage. We have stayed in touch with all of them and plan to visit the other two couples in Australia. Our two guides are still busy traveling the world and leading groups on expeditions from Japan to Utah. We drove from Anchorage to Prince William Sound to begin our kayaking. We needed to average about 16 miles a day or risk getting caught with the tides going out to sea. It sounded easy, but after three day of all day kayaking, we were indeed wore out. It was so worth it for the sites we saw though.
We stopped several times a day for snacks and lunch, but otherwise it was all day paddling every day. There were icebergs, seals and even one whale which I wasn't quick enough to photograph. All three couples shared double kayaks which were loaded down with all our supplies. We had tents, sleeping bags, food and cookware to haul.
Each evening we stopped and pitched our tents and started working on dinner. We had very strict instructions to keep us safe from bears. Our tents for sleeping were always well over 100 yards away from the kitchen tent where the food was stored and cooked. We were not wearing any deodorant, perfume, lotion, etc. Nothing with a scent could be used for fear of attracting the bears. We did have one large can of bear spray just in case.
Click on this photo to see a video for a laugh as Kimberly tries to get me to help paddle.
By the third day we had reached the glacier and it was an incredible site. At times it was a bit worrying as huge chucks of ice would calve and fall into the sea sending waves across our tiny kayaks. Even paddling by the icebergs could be concerning as you noticed they were so huge and also would occasionally just break up and flip over.
Our last campsite was probably the best for views. We were on an isolated beach with beautiful views in 360 degrees. Our tent was pitched under an eagles nest complete with baby eagles!
A bald eagle and nest with babies we camped under
Small seal we saw swimming around.
Our campsite the second night
This was our kitchen tent. We always pitched it away from the sleeping tents
Here's the Dlive video, it's 5 minutes of the highlights!
The unspoiled beauty of Alaska always gets me.
Oh man, don't get me started on the salmon. It's incredible when it's fresh caught and wild. Nothing like that farm raised salmon we usually get here. I know we ate it at least twice a day the whole trip. While camping there at one spot we could just walk into the stream and pick one up and start cooking. They were everywhere.
I miss Alaska and the part of my family that still lives there. It is the most wonderful place and at times unforgiving like a desert.
Maybe I will move back there some day.
It's an amazing place for sure, I'd love to go back and stay much longer. There's just so much to see. Thanks for the comment.
this is a really cool adventure post! With the pictures, I bet you are right when you say that in person is more beautiful, although I try to stay away from the cold =) does not mean I cant appreciate beauty of nature so thanks for the content.
Thank you very much. Glad you could enjoy it :)
Hiya, just swinging by to let you know that this post made the Honorable mentions list in today's TravelDigest
Awesome. Thank you very much!
I miss living in Alaska in some ways and in others not at all. It is a beautiful place though.
I get that. Places can lose some luster if you have lived there for a while. It definitely has some stunning scenery.
Stunning photos! I've never been to Alaska, but it's definitely on my "bucket list"- keep up the great work! Thanks for sharing.
(Found you from yourluckyphotos.)
Thank you very much. It was great to get acknowledged by yourluckyphotos. Alaska is definitely worth the trip!
I've enjoyed my "relationship"with yourluckyphotos. I'm hoping that getting featured almost daily will pay off at some point soon! (Though the odds have gone down now that they're featuring 20 instead of just 10 photographers!)
One of my cousins lived in Alaska for a time and I have reason to believe one of our cats made the trip to Alaska one summer on a fishing boat... she came back too! If it weren't so darned expensive to live there, I'd move there in a heartbeat!
Yeah, I wondered if there was any payoff but seems like its still fairly new.
I guess you just build a cabin and live like a mountain man, then Alaska should be cheap. :)
god this place looks absolutely stunning. places like these keep me coming back for more of all this gorgeous earth-beauty. thanks for sharing!
Thanks bud, I'm really glad you enjoyed it. It is truly a stunning state, I'd love to go back and stay much longer!
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Your photography will be featured in today's lucky 20 showcase alongside nineteen other lucky photographers. Not only that, but this post has received a lottery number for the March 2018 "Lucky Photo Lottery" for a chance of winning free Steem Dollars.
That sounds like a great adventure! I had the same problem in Alaska of feeling like I couldn't adequately capture the grandness and beauty on camera. You got some wonderful photos anyway, though!
Isn't it incredible. Every where you look is just great scenery and then you are standing there holding a camera thinking, this just isn't doing it justice. I loved it there.
It's been nearly 6 years since the one time I got to go there. One day I'll make it back out there again!
I think your rank is good, I follow you, because, I see you are very enthusiastic, I hope to follow your step.