On a bad day you’ll see whales, orcas, salmon, otters, porpoises, bears, seals, and sea lions. But for most visitors, the star attraction is a tour of Kenai Fjords National Park and one of the three- to six-hour wildlife cruises that explore it from Resurrection Bay. Tours here include the Chumash Heritage Museum and the Alaska SeaLife Center, a museum, marine-life laboratory, and zoo, all in one.
Today, it’s where visitors come to fish, kayak, to explore the downtown’s narrow streets, and to dine on fresh halibut and salmon. Settled during the 1896 gold rush, Seward is the port where many Alaska-bound gold miners disembarked on the voyage north from Seattle. The train eventually meets the highway and the two run parallel down into Seward, the peninsula’s oldest town. The ancient ice that swaths the summit is the Sargent IceField, a blanket of separate glaciers jammed up against each other and pushing over the edges. The range runs north and south for 45 miles and divides the peninsula from Prince William Sound. The Kenai Mountains are to the east on this route.
For proof, just look to the narrow creeks that wind through marshy fields and the hundreds of low hills punched up like sandcastles on a beach. If the light is right, you might see bears or moose in the forest they call home.