In Alaska, beauty is to be found at every turn, in the poignancy of a still life, in the animated antic of a whale, in the hanging mist, in the detail of the storied rainforest. As we journey through the vast ocean-island-forest panorama, we are taken by each successive scene, while simultaneously being saturated by a broad sense of ethereal beauty.
Early this morning we cruised into Admiralty Island’s elongate Eliza Harbor. In the narrow slotted entrance we observed bald eagles guarding navigational markers and treetops, strikingly marked Bonaparte’s gulls foraging over the water, harbor seals hauled out in the intertidal, those ubiquitous great blue herons, and a charging flock of well-patterned surfbirds. After breakfast and safety briefings (this being the first day of our expedition) we explored out in the more open waters of Frederick Sound.
In the windchop the telltale blows of whales were spotted. We watched and photographed a surface-lingering humpback whale that displayed beautifully painted white flukes as it repeatedly dove. (It is the black-and-white pigmentation and jagged serrations of the trailing edge of the humpback’s tail that allows researchers to identify these animals as unique individuals). Near the tiny Brothers archipelago we were attracted to other humpbacks that appeared to be working food resources amongst the current lines.
Our attention was soon drawn to a multitude of brown spots on the small island before us; a huge group of Steller sea lions was occupying a gray beach and rocky shoreline. We thus witnessed the largest aggregation of this recently listed endangered species that any of us has seen – six hundred or more of these odoriferous and vocal marine beasts were finding repose on this small isolated island. A pair of harbor porpoises sighted off the bow brought our morning marine mammal species count to four.
Deep in Houghton Bay on the continental coast we enjoyed protected smooth waters, ribboning waterfalls, overhanging snowfields and broad sweeping meadows. Here we hiked into luxuriant temperate rainforest and paddled kayaks in the fjord. Delectable natural treats presented themselves to our tastebuds – nagoonberries and Indian rice root in the meadow, red huckleberries and blueberries in the forest. Many people had first experiences in the rainforest, gazing up to the canopy along the spines of towering spruces while bouncing afoot on the springy moss-matted forest floor.
It is an interminable kaleidoscope of beauty that revolves as one travels through the pristine natural environment of coastal Southeast Alaska.
