Lake Eva & Red Bluff Bay
After sailing all night south from Glacier Bay, we turned west from Chatham Strait into Peril Strait and anchored in Hanus Bay, on the north end of Baranof Island. The Zodiacs took us to the mouth of Eva Creek, and from there we took a variety of walks, the longest of which led up the creek to Eva Lake and a spectacular grove of huge Sitka spruce, probably well over 500 years old. This beautiful forest was filled with the sounds of birds, most notably varied thrush and robin. Those on the shorter hikes got the chance afterwards to kayak in the protected, calm waters of Hanus Bay, including good views of the cascades of Eva Creek.
The National Geographic Sea Lion then sailed back into Chatham Strait, where we were treated, once again, to Dall’s porpoise surfing on the ship's bow wave. We continued south along the east coast of Baranof Island, a rugged, glaciated island with jagged mountains up to 5,000 feet in height and composed of 200 million-year-old metamorphic rocks intruded by large bodies of 50 million year granite. After lunch, we were treated by naturalist Bryan Gates to the history of sea otters in western North America. These charismatic marine mammals numbered nearly a quarter million in the early 1700s, but were hunted for their pelts to near extinction (2000 individuals?) in the early 1900s. Conservation efforts and relocation in the late 1900s have been remarkably successful, and there now are nearly 150,000 individuals, half of which are in Alaska.
We came on deck into bright sunshine to be treated to a close view of Red Bluff, framed by the snow-covered spires of Baranof Island. Red Bluff is a knob of red-weathering peridotite, an olivine-rich rock crystallized at 2,000°F and a depth of 30 miles and then pushed up into 800°F metamorphic rocks, all this happening nearly 200 million years ago. Red Bluff has a rock chemistry inhospitable to plants and thus has only sparse vegetation, contrasting strikingly with the lush forest of the nearby metamorphic rock.
The narrow entrance to Red Bluff Bay led us to a narrow, 4-mile-long glacial fjord, best described as a natural cathedral, with numerous waterfalls tumbling down from snowfields over 3,000 feet above. In addition to this spectacular scenery, we were treated to sightings of five Alaska brown bears, a trumpeter swan, red-throated loons, common mergansers, mew gulls, harlequin ducks, and bald eagles. The 200-foot-deep water next to the vertical cliffs allowed the National Geographic Sea Lion to maneuver to within just a few feet of a magnificent waterfall.
Leaving Red Bluff Bay, we crossed Chatham Strait, a deep glaciated channel along a major fault, to the subdued, heavily forested terrain of Admiralty Island, where we visited Eliza Harbor after dinner, a scenic indented fiord on the southern coastline of Admiralty Island.
Another busy, exciting day on the National Geographic Sea Lion in one of the most beautiful parts of the world!
After sailing all night south from Glacier Bay, we turned west from Chatham Strait into Peril Strait and anchored in Hanus Bay, on the north end of Baranof Island. The Zodiacs took us to the mouth of Eva Creek, and from there we took a variety of walks, the longest of which led up the creek to Eva Lake and a spectacular grove of huge Sitka spruce, probably well over 500 years old. This beautiful forest was filled with the sounds of birds, most notably varied thrush and robin. Those on the shorter hikes got the chance afterwards to kayak in the protected, calm waters of Hanus Bay, including good views of the cascades of Eva Creek.
The National Geographic Sea Lion then sailed back into Chatham Strait, where we were treated, once again, to Dall’s porpoise surfing on the ship's bow wave. We continued south along the east coast of Baranof Island, a rugged, glaciated island with jagged mountains up to 5,000 feet in height and composed of 200 million-year-old metamorphic rocks intruded by large bodies of 50 million year granite. After lunch, we were treated by naturalist Bryan Gates to the history of sea otters in western North America. These charismatic marine mammals numbered nearly a quarter million in the early 1700s, but were hunted for their pelts to near extinction (2000 individuals?) in the early 1900s. Conservation efforts and relocation in the late 1900s have been remarkably successful, and there now are nearly 150,000 individuals, half of which are in Alaska.
We came on deck into bright sunshine to be treated to a close view of Red Bluff, framed by the snow-covered spires of Baranof Island. Red Bluff is a knob of red-weathering peridotite, an olivine-rich rock crystallized at 2,000°F and a depth of 30 miles and then pushed up into 800°F metamorphic rocks, all this happening nearly 200 million years ago. Red Bluff has a rock chemistry inhospitable to plants and thus has only sparse vegetation, contrasting strikingly with the lush forest of the nearby metamorphic rock.
The narrow entrance to Red Bluff Bay led us to a narrow, 4-mile-long glacial fjord, best described as a natural cathedral, with numerous waterfalls tumbling down from snowfields over 3,000 feet above. In addition to this spectacular scenery, we were treated to sightings of five Alaska brown bears, a trumpeter swan, red-throated loons, common mergansers, mew gulls, harlequin ducks, and bald eagles. The 200-foot-deep water next to the vertical cliffs allowed the National Geographic Sea Lion to maneuver to within just a few feet of a magnificent waterfall.
Leaving Red Bluff Bay, we crossed Chatham Strait, a deep glaciated channel along a major fault, to the subdued, heavily forested terrain of Admiralty Island, where we visited Eliza Harbor after dinner, a scenic indented fiord on the southern coastline of Admiralty Island.
Another busy, exciting day on the National Geographic Sea Lion in one of the most beautiful parts of the world!
