Roll Tide

We had breakfast in the lodge before checking out this morning. Since we had a little bit of time before our float plane was scheduled to depart, we went out for one last look at the bears from the lower river platforms.

Can you find six bears fishing in the river?

Watching the bears snorkel for fish was pretty entertaining...

Mama is tired, baby

Our departure was delayed because there was a bear sleeping on the beach next to our plane, so we weren't allowed to approach. We had to wait for 30 minutes to see if it moved or not. Once the ranger gave the all-clear, the staff dragged the plane further down the beach away from the bear so that the passengers could board safely.

Naknek Lake

Aerial view of Brooks Falls and Brooks River

We arrived back in King Salmon about a half hour later than expected, but we still had plenty of time to spare before our Alaska Airlines flight was scheduled to depart for Anchorage. After grabbing our extra bag from storage, we rode their shuttle to the airport. 

Once back in Anchorage, we picked up another rental car and hit the road for the 125-mile drive to south to Seward. Thanks to my fellow member of the National Parks Travelers Club who clued me in to bore tides, I checked into the predicted schedule when planning out our trip. Luckily, it seemed like we had a good shot of seeing one this afternoon, so we stopped at a few scenic turnouts along Seward Highway for pics of the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet.

What exactly is a bore tide? It forms after low tide when rapidly rising tide waters push into a narrow channel, forming a raised front and creating a wave. There are only a few locations in the world where these phenomena happen. The bore tide that travels along the length of Turnagain Arm is the only one in the United States and the most northern on the planet. The best chances of seeing of large bore are on days where there is a big differential between low and high tides (i.e. extreme minus tide). 

Our first stop was at Beluga Point, where we arrived around the predicted time of the bore tide (3:15PM + 30 min).

 

3:40PM - is that it?

Since we weren't exactly sure what we were looking for and whether or not we missed it, we continued south to Bird Point and paid the $5 day use fee for Chugach State Park (yes, this is part of the same state park that we visited earlier in the week). We got there well ahead of the predicted arrival time of 5:00PM, so we just watched and waited. 

5:30PM - is that it?

It was cold, so we called it and headed back to the car. However, just a few miles down the road at Turnout #3 (Milepost 93), we saw a crowd of people watching surfers riding the bore tide! Totally awesome, dude!

 

Yep, that's definitely it!

From here, it took us another 90 minutes to reach our hotel in Seward, arriving around 7:30PM. After dropping off our stuff in the room, we went back out for a late dinner at The Highliner Restaurant in town. 

125 miles, 2.5 hours

Tomorrow I get to test out just how well the scopolamine patch works!