Fox Creek & Inian Islands
This morning we went ashore at Fox Creek, in Idaho Inlet, and people who kayaked around Shaw Island found sea otters! They weren’t the only mammals living in the area: people who explored on land found tracks from Sitka black-tailed deer and brown bears. Hikers followed trails that meandered through coastal meadow, past large trees toppled by wind, and into mossy forest. Trails crossed a couple of small creeks and continued into lovely spruce forest.
The tide was low in the middle of the morning, and there were countless treasures to find near the low tide line: colorful sea stars awaiting the return of salt water, and huge limp anemones hanging from boulders. We touched their sticky tentacles, and they withdrew into themselves. We looked down at the mud, and noticed it was covered with small worms living in tubes made of tiny sand grains, and they all wiggled, like short, brown pieces of pasta. It was all so easy to pass by if one didn’t look closely . . . so we took our time and explored before the tide returned.
During lunch the ship repositioned a couple of miles to the Inian Islands, and our afternoon was devoted to taking Zodiac cruises among this beautiful cluster of islands near the northern end of the Inside Passage. Currents are strong here, and waters very productive, with plenty of food for fishes, seabirds and other marine life. We watched a couple of sea otters and then traveled through a narrow channel, past hilly islands and waterfalls, finally into open water with the Pacific Ocean in front of us. Stellar sea lions were resting on rocks on the side of one of the islands, then sharp eyes in one of the Zodiacs spotted a tall, black dorsal fin! Orcas! We soon noticed that there were many orcas in the vicinity - more than two dozen. Small groups of the whales swam near the Zodiacs, and off in the distance as well. Meanwhile, while the National Geographic Sea Lion repositioned, guests on board saw sea otters, a humpback whale, Steller sea lions and many orcas. All guests had time in the Zodiacs, and the orcas remained near – even swimming between the ship and the Zodiacs at times. I could not imagine a better way to finish our 11-day journey up the coast.
