Chichagof Island
We ventured out last night from Southeast Alaska’s seaside city, Sitka, past scores of bald eagles and high jinxing sea lions into a darkening Peril Strait with apparitions of bears on distant beaches. Full of anticipation, we began our voyage into the backwater fjords of the North Pacific that is Alaska’s Inside Passage.
Dawning morning revealed panoramas of island, rainforest, mountain, sea and sky. We fell in with a slowly travelling whale that proudly showed off its magnificent flukes. Its all-dark flukeprint with small bisected white circle identified this whale as ‘Saturn,’ a known group feeder, now alone. We ate our breakfast together and repositioned to Pavlof Harbor in Freshwater Bay on Chichagof Island’s eastern shore.
Hikers moved by land and kayakers by sea along a stream dropping from lake to fjord. A weir, fish ladder and rusting relics by a rushing cataract, gave away the salmon that ascend this waterway in late summer. Hummingbirds and dragonflies, lilies and irises, beavered trees and a dead goshawk painted our impressions. The barnacled intertidal silently slipped away as the sea rose to the mossy temperate rainforest of towering ancient spruce we explored.
En route to our afternoon’s destination, the exuberance of youth expressed itself in a humpback whale calf that goofed off while its mom procured foodstuffs. The little whale enjoyed a few good breaches and tail throws today, but must soon get more serious and learn to fend for itself. Meanwhile, we enjoyed fine weather with Alaskan ‘blue clouds’ and patches of clear sky between clouds, reflected stunningly on a glazed sea.
On a high spring tide we entered a magical corner of the world passing by Zodiac under the rainforest supported by a broad arch, into a roofless cavern in the haven of Basket Bay. The remarkable grotto is a jumbled meeting place of geology, rainforest, seawater and stream, with a pure aesthetic of its own. We squeezed past sculpted marbled walls and under huge fallen trunks leaning down from the forest to enter an "Indiana Jones" type portal into El Dorado or some other mythical destination. Today the grotto was the sanctuary of an American dipper, John Muir’s favorite bird.
We nightcapped this first day of impressions of Alaska with an unannounced visit to Kasnyku Falls, where summer melt powerfully cascades down a steep rock wall. The mesmerizing motion of falling white water contrasted wonderfully with the greens of the rainforest beside it. As evening seeped into day, the clouds and sky over the islands’ mountains played out a brilliant drama of light and dark. Just as the sky reflects upon the sea, we reflected on our experiences, beginning our own inner passage through the Inside Passage.
We ventured out last night from Southeast Alaska’s seaside city, Sitka, past scores of bald eagles and high jinxing sea lions into a darkening Peril Strait with apparitions of bears on distant beaches. Full of anticipation, we began our voyage into the backwater fjords of the North Pacific that is Alaska’s Inside Passage.
Dawning morning revealed panoramas of island, rainforest, mountain, sea and sky. We fell in with a slowly travelling whale that proudly showed off its magnificent flukes. Its all-dark flukeprint with small bisected white circle identified this whale as ‘Saturn,’ a known group feeder, now alone. We ate our breakfast together and repositioned to Pavlof Harbor in Freshwater Bay on Chichagof Island’s eastern shore.
Hikers moved by land and kayakers by sea along a stream dropping from lake to fjord. A weir, fish ladder and rusting relics by a rushing cataract, gave away the salmon that ascend this waterway in late summer. Hummingbirds and dragonflies, lilies and irises, beavered trees and a dead goshawk painted our impressions. The barnacled intertidal silently slipped away as the sea rose to the mossy temperate rainforest of towering ancient spruce we explored.
En route to our afternoon’s destination, the exuberance of youth expressed itself in a humpback whale calf that goofed off while its mom procured foodstuffs. The little whale enjoyed a few good breaches and tail throws today, but must soon get more serious and learn to fend for itself. Meanwhile, we enjoyed fine weather with Alaskan ‘blue clouds’ and patches of clear sky between clouds, reflected stunningly on a glazed sea.
On a high spring tide we entered a magical corner of the world passing by Zodiac under the rainforest supported by a broad arch, into a roofless cavern in the haven of Basket Bay. The remarkable grotto is a jumbled meeting place of geology, rainforest, seawater and stream, with a pure aesthetic of its own. We squeezed past sculpted marbled walls and under huge fallen trunks leaning down from the forest to enter an "Indiana Jones" type portal into El Dorado or some other mythical destination. Today the grotto was the sanctuary of an American dipper, John Muir’s favorite bird.
We nightcapped this first day of impressions of Alaska with an unannounced visit to Kasnyku Falls, where summer melt powerfully cascades down a steep rock wall. The mesmerizing motion of falling white water contrasted wonderfully with the greens of the rainforest beside it. As evening seeped into day, the clouds and sky over the islands’ mountains played out a brilliant drama of light and dark. Just as the sky reflects upon the sea, we reflected on our experiences, beginning our own inner passage through the Inside Passage.
