Special Travel Feature: Seward, Alaska by Betchai (The Joys of Simple Life)

“Life, like hiking, has lots of ups and downs,
rugged and steep terrains,
switchbacks, and beautiful scenic turns.”
Betchai, The Joys of Simple Life

Meet Betchai, our featured traveler, who is passionate about hiking and exploring national parks. Her blog, The Joys of Simple Life, is a site where one can view amazing photos of nature, as well as learn more about hiking trails, trip itineraries, and road information.

Betchai, hiking at Harding Icefield

In this special travel feature, Betchai takes us to Seward, Alaska as she talks about unforgettable moments during her trip – hiking the Harding Icefield Trail at Kenai Fjords National Park and observing the Aialik Glacier calving. She also shares with us some travel tips, as well as her personal insights about travel and going places. (Note: Do click on the images to view the full version.)

Q. How would you describe your stay in Seward, Alaska? Any personal experience that you would like to share regarding the history, culture and people?

Seward is a very picturesque fishing and tourist town in Alaska. The town was named after Secretary of State William Seward, where in 1867 he fought for the US purchase of Alaska from Russia. Seward also has a large port and harbor, which allows transportation of goods to/from inland Alaska. Seward is the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park, which is a renowned place for viewing wildlife because the processes of climate, geology, and oceanography have shaped it into a rich environment where the land meets the sea.

The little town of Seward allows tourists to enjoy Kenai Fjords National Park in a variety of ways. We explored Kenai Fjords by foot through hiking Harding Icefield and experiencing Exit Glacier up close, and we explored Kenai Fjords by boat to explore its tidewater glaciers and ocean wildlife. This is the town where you can be as close to experiencing what ICE AGE is like, so rich with natural history. The Native Americans before relied on these resources to nurture a life entwined with the sea.

Images from Seward

Q. Any funny or unforgettable moments during your trip?

Everything that I had experienced in Seward is unforgettable for me. 🙂

First, hiking the Harding Icefield Trail at Kenai Fjords National Park really blew me away. The memories from the face of one of Harding Icefield’s outflowing glaciers to the end of its trail are still haunting my senses up to now and I know they will forever remain in my memory. You can actually read more about our hike to Harding Icefield in my blog, The Joys of Simple Life.

Second, seeing the other side of Harding Icefield that is exposed to the ocean was another oh, ah moment for me. The day after our hike at Harding Icefield, we took a day cruise to explore the other parts of Kenai Fjords that can’t be accessed by foot. There we saw some of the other outflowing glaciers from Harding Icefield, one of which, is Kenai Fjords’ largest tidewater glacier, Aialik Glacier. A tidewater glacier terminates at sea level and calves directly into sea. The glacier calving was one of a kind experience for me. It was like nature was opening to me some features of Earth which I less understood before. At first, I saw birds flying away from the glacier. And then, slowly, we heard rumbling, and then, the roaring became louder than a thunder, like a demolition of the building. In front of us (our boat was at a safe distance), we saw flakes of ice falling into the sea and throwing water into the air.

Aialik Glacier calving

After the ice thinned, everything became quiet, and birds started to fly into the glacier again. Then, I saw harbor seals, and sea lions who seemed to be thankful for their life. At that time, I thought they were thankful they were spared from the wrath of falling ice. Later I learned that the ice is their safe refuge from their predators such as bears and killer whales for these predators won’t hunt on ice-choked fjords.

That affirmed me once again that THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL REASON FOR EVERYTHING! Nature taught me that this glacier calving cycle is needed for we all are interconnected! A day before our cruise, we were so close to the top of the ice source that just calved in front of us, the Harding Icefield which is 3500-4000 ft thick of ice! I started to appreciate more the beauty of the ruggedness of the nunataks that were formed from the retreading glaciers.

Going back to those birds, they do tell something! They have more sensitivity to the sound, they could sense ice crumbling and they fly away! They show us how to listen to nature around us, and respect it, and hopefully, take care of it. I had seen only very little of what is in Kenai Fjords National Park, yet the little I experienced is HUGE enough for me to love and to live the experience. It’s the park of my dreams where the ocean, mountains, glaciers, forests, and rich wildlife co-exist.

Some of the marine wildlife seen at Kenai Fjords National Park

Q. Any travel tips for those planning to visit Seward and other places in Alaska?

When planning for itinerary, we usually identify first the main places of interest that we wanted to explore. In our case, they were Kenai Fjords and Denali National Parks, which are almost 400 miles apart! So, we would usually look for places of interest or adventure to do between this two to make the drive less boring and divide it into smaller segments.

Also, after determining all our must see places and must do, we put them all in Google maps, and see what is the best way to cover them in shortest distance or shortest drive possible. We do not want to keep on going back and forth if it can be avoided, to save us some gas money and time, allowing us to explore more.

For us, must see is really Kenai Fjords National Park and Denali National Park. Must do is hiking Harding Icefield. If however, you think you will not have the time and physical endurance to hike Harding Icefield, I believe anyone who can walk in the mall can do the glacier hiking in Matanuska Glacier. It is easy enough and not as physically demanding as Harding Icefield. And it is really a one of a kind experience to be in a glacier, not just watching it from afar. Matanuska Glacier is close enough to civilization, it is about 2 hours away from Anchorage, so it is really very doable.

Betchai at Matanuska Glacier

Q. Any personal insights about travel and going places?

Whenever we travel and explore places, we have a mindset of “no expectation, no destination”. It allows us to not hurry and not miss the beauty of life we see, if we needed to stop to enjoy the scenery, we would. We are not rushing, even in our hikes. For us, physical preparation for endurance must be at our home hikes, but when we explore different places, it is about getting the most of nature, experiencing it the best way you could, seeing the beauty, and forget about the numbers.

I know a lot of people, who feel if others hike this trail for 3 hours, they must complete it in 2 hours. We are not like that, we don’t feel pressured with numbers, instead, we let ourselves enjoy these gifts of nature the best we could and also take a lot of pictures. We usually cover a lot of places in a matter of few days because we start and plan our hikes early enough.

Q. Which countries/states/cities have you already traveled?

Can I talk about National Parks instead? 🙂 Though I very much love San Diego, the city where I live right now, and I have lived in and/or explored a lot of cities such as NYC, Boston, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, etc., but frankly, for me, there is nothing like seeing and experiencing the grandeur of nature. Whenever I travel, I always search for nature, because the greatest art piece for me is not man-made, but is living in extreme fragility in the great outdoors, in our natural museums, in our National Parks.

But I do love visiting museums too, my favorites are Natural History Museum and Science Museum, as they are still very much nature related. I love seeing the work of these great minds who were inspired by nature to keep a more beautiful and meaningful living in our beautiful but fragile world. But I would not purposely make plans to travel to a city for its theaters, museums, arts, science because I have easy access to them, but rather I would visit a city because it is close enough to my nature get-away. I guess that is the very reason why San Francisco is my most favorite city for a nature and adventure vacation.

Q. What are your dream destinations?

I really frankly do not have dream destinations. 🙂 I take it one place at a time. Just like how you say it in your blog, “one Happy Step at a time!” 🙂 So maybe for me, “one beautiful National Park at a time.” Why I love experiencing National Parks because they are a place of natural wonder that preserves nature’s beauty.

Seeing and experiencing the grandeur of nature makes me always teary eyed, for to me, they testify God’s greatest artistry that can never be equaled.

So going back to your question, my dream destinations are always where I could hike, or a place which combines hiking and the ocean. 🙂