Exit Glacier: Monday, Sept 1, 2008

Moose poop. Each nugget is about thumb-size:

Exit Galcier

Puffins:

The rain continues, but that didn't prevent us from having a pretty good day. After breakfast we drove up the road to Exit Glacier, the only glacier in Alaska that you can walk up to (well, within 30 feet or so). My father wasn't up for it, but I took advantage of a half-mile walk up toward the glacier led by a park ranger, who shared a good bit of information about the glacier, local floral, and local fauna, including more than you want to know about moose poop (see photo).

Once I dried out, we got some lunch and headed to the Alaska Sea Life Center, a small aquarium that focuses on -- you guessed it -- Alaskan sea life. There were very interesting and informative exhibits in addition to the important quality of it being primarily an indoor activity. I cheated a bit and took a couple of photos of incarcerated puffins. Cute little devils, though. We then headed down a previously unexplored road along the coast, carefully threading our way through the potholes. This turned out to be an excellent idea because we ran across a group of four sea otters that were within observation distance from shore. These guys are non-stop eating machines and didn't much mind being watched. Video of the action is here: http://www.sethkrieger.com/videos/seaotters.avi

We had a moment of real excitement as we were returning to our room. Trotting along toward us in the middle of the road was what we both initially mistook for a timber wolf! Turned out to be a tallish sled dog, but it sure had us going there for a few seconds!