Michelle Nye

Review of Miller's Landing Seward AK

We were renting a cabin at Miller's Landing throug...

We were renting a cabin at Miller's Landing through Airbnb. They called to let us know they offer tours so we took them up on it. We scheduled a full day kayak tour. It was nice to be on property as we had to meet at the dock at 5:30am.

When we arrived we met Chris our guide for the day. We were the only kayakers on a boat of fishermen. We had a 2 hour ride out to Northwestern Fjord. We were going one bay over from where they usually kayak to accommodate the people fishing.

They dropped us off on the rocky beach. The boat has a gangway that lowers down on the bow so we just had to walk off onto the beach. My daughter and I were happy we wore our rubber boots so we could just plod through the water. They quickly unloaded the kayaks and all the gear we will need for the day.

Chris quickly went to work setting up our double kayaks while we ran around taking pictures of the amazing scenery. After a quick review of safety and paddling technique he dragged us to the water and sent us off into the water. We started paddling through the pristine bay and it was a surreal experience. Pictures do not do the amazing beauty justice.

We paddled about 4 miles and made a quick stop to adjust the foot pedals for the rudder and just take a quick stretch. We had also dressed for a cool paddle and the temperature and the sun were making it quite warm so we peeled off a layer of clothes. We continued to paddle through the floating icebergs and had many curious seals popping up to check us out. We also had a whale sighting about 200 feet off the bow of our kayak.

We approached the foot of the Northwestern glacier and could hear the glacier calving. The blue ice glistened in the sun and we pulled over to the rocky beach to have our lunch. Chris laid out sandwiches, chips, and snacks. There were some large ice chunks on land from high tide so we went over for photo ops with them and the glacier in the background.

With our bellies full we headed back out on the water to paddle over to Ogive (pronounced Ojai) glacier. The base of it had disconnected from the Harding ice field above so it is brown and old looking. It is super tall and hard to tell scale from the pictures. We pulled up on the rocky coast next to Anchor Glacier that is very close to Ogive. Chris had brought hot chocolate and his stove thinking, like us, that it was going to be cold. We opted for the water instead since the sun was still shining bright and keeping us warm.

From here we had 1.5 hours to paddle 4 miles to the extraction point. Unfortunately, after a very calm flat morning on the water, the head winds had kicked up and were now making the waves crash over the bow of our kayaks. It made for some difficult paddling for the end of the day. We muscled through but were exhausted by the time we got to the beach. We had been paddling since 9 am with our couple of stops and we pulled in to the final stop at 4pm. The route we took is also a 3 night camping trip which would be a phenomenal way to experience all that this Fjord has to offer on a much more relaxed experience.

We waited for the boat to come pick us up and reflected on our amazing day. Chris is such a hard worker. He pulled us in and pushed us off of each stop all day. He was a wealth of information about the surrounding area the water, glaciers and animals. He even gave us a great suggestion for dinner later that night.

When we got back on the boat for our 2 hour ride back to Miller's Landing we all fell asleep. The combination of the early morning and 14 miles of paddling had gotten the best of us. Chance, is one of the owners of Miller's Landing and was our boat captain. He grew up in the area and is really interesting to talk to. He is very concerned about providing a positive experience and making his customers happy. I highly recommend you do a kayak or fishing tour with Miller's Landing and explore all that this amazing area of the world has to offer.