George Island
“Hot” and “clear” were the bywords for this day in Southeast Alaska. If you can imagine yourself at the edge of the Gulf of Alaska in the high latitudes of the North Pacific Ocean taking a Zodiac tour in a T-shirt and shorts, you can imagine our day here aboard the Sea Lion. Around George Island at the mouth of Cross Sound we saw incredible wildlife and scenery. Try again to imagine seeing the cloudless Fairweather Range as a backdrop for tufted and horned puffins, pigeon guillemots, sea otters, Steller sea lions, a humpback whale, bald eagles and a peregrine falcon. Then imagine taking a walk on the island of lush mosses, lichens and deep spruce-hemlock forests and returning to the beach for a swim!! Yes, many of us swam in the 44-degree water of Granite Cove and then enjoyed a little sun bathing on the beautiful white beach. Doesn’t happen every day in Southeast!
In the afternoon the Sea Lion cruised the entire length of Idaho inlet, stopping for sea otters and taking in the awesome scenery. The joke on the bow was that the staff had never seen the mountains at the edge of the fjord, an unfair jab at the mythic rainy weather of Southeast Alaska. The truth is, of course, that the sun shines like this every day and it rains only at night, but visitors are sworn to secrecy before they are allowed to return home. This incredible day ended off Point Adolphus where we sat motionless in the water as over a half dozen humpback whales repeatedly blew their misty spouts and threw their mighty tails into the still evening air and hundreds of gulls formed a thin blanket over the twilight scene.
“Hot” and “clear” were the bywords for this day in Southeast Alaska. If you can imagine yourself at the edge of the Gulf of Alaska in the high latitudes of the North Pacific Ocean taking a Zodiac tour in a T-shirt and shorts, you can imagine our day here aboard the Sea Lion. Around George Island at the mouth of Cross Sound we saw incredible wildlife and scenery. Try again to imagine seeing the cloudless Fairweather Range as a backdrop for tufted and horned puffins, pigeon guillemots, sea otters, Steller sea lions, a humpback whale, bald eagles and a peregrine falcon. Then imagine taking a walk on the island of lush mosses, lichens and deep spruce-hemlock forests and returning to the beach for a swim!! Yes, many of us swam in the 44-degree water of Granite Cove and then enjoyed a little sun bathing on the beautiful white beach. Doesn’t happen every day in Southeast!
In the afternoon the Sea Lion cruised the entire length of Idaho inlet, stopping for sea otters and taking in the awesome scenery. The joke on the bow was that the staff had never seen the mountains at the edge of the fjord, an unfair jab at the mythic rainy weather of Southeast Alaska. The truth is, of course, that the sun shines like this every day and it rains only at night, but visitors are sworn to secrecy before they are allowed to return home. This incredible day ended off Point Adolphus where we sat motionless in the water as over a half dozen humpback whales repeatedly blew their misty spouts and threw their mighty tails into the still evening air and hundreds of gulls formed a thin blanket over the twilight scene.
