Le Conte Bay and Petersburg, Alaska
Sunny summer weather brings out the joy in us all, spotlighting the features of glacier, ocean and rainforest that make up Southeast Alaska. Patterns of nature seemingly play themselves out more before illuminated souls. It is somewhat antithetical exploring a land carved and germinated by intense precipitation under such brilliant clear skies.
We rubbed open our eyes deep up the jade waters of iceberg-choked Le Conte Bay embraced by close rainforested shores. Surreal forms of frozen ice floated about our Zodiacs. Dripping blue icebergs sparkled in the morning sunlight. Floatplanes landed on the water hyperspacing guests to an enhanced aerial perspective. Many people took fixed wing and helicopter flights over the Stikine Icefield to better envision the formation, flow and fragmentation of ice. Standing atop a vast glacier surface high in the mountains is indeed quite a humbling experience.
Back down on Earth, harbor seals slinked through the glacial melt and reposed on floating white icy rafts about our Zodiacs. Early summer is time for birthing, nursing and dispatching of new seal pups. One particular unattended newborn pup captured our attention with its repeated bleated cries for its mom. We imagined that its mother was just off on a feeding excursion. Other possibilities loomed.
Not far out from the icy kaleidoscope of Le Conte Bay we fortuned upon the unmistakable black and white forms of killer whales. Subtle physical and behavioral clues identified this trio as marine mammal-consuming “transient” orcas. We patiently observed the glimpse of their lives offered up at the air we share and imagined what transpired in the water below. A female whale stopped and surfaced beside us with what very well might have been blood on her lips. It does not take much for these top predators to catch a seal meal.
After the exciting distraction we ultimately reached our destination - picturesque Petersburg, Alaska. People explored this authentic fishing community on foot while flightseers winged away. Boardwalk hikers in saturated muskeg habitat on nearby Kupreanof Island observed crafty Steller’s jays, silent and mysterious, and crafty carnivorous insect-catching plants in the bog.
After a Dungeness crab feast we reveled in the remainder of the day’s extraordinary weather on deck as the Sea Bird maneuvered through the serpentine Wrangell Narrows towards further adventures.
Sunny summer weather brings out the joy in us all, spotlighting the features of glacier, ocean and rainforest that make up Southeast Alaska. Patterns of nature seemingly play themselves out more before illuminated souls. It is somewhat antithetical exploring a land carved and germinated by intense precipitation under such brilliant clear skies.
We rubbed open our eyes deep up the jade waters of iceberg-choked Le Conte Bay embraced by close rainforested shores. Surreal forms of frozen ice floated about our Zodiacs. Dripping blue icebergs sparkled in the morning sunlight. Floatplanes landed on the water hyperspacing guests to an enhanced aerial perspective. Many people took fixed wing and helicopter flights over the Stikine Icefield to better envision the formation, flow and fragmentation of ice. Standing atop a vast glacier surface high in the mountains is indeed quite a humbling experience.
Back down on Earth, harbor seals slinked through the glacial melt and reposed on floating white icy rafts about our Zodiacs. Early summer is time for birthing, nursing and dispatching of new seal pups. One particular unattended newborn pup captured our attention with its repeated bleated cries for its mom. We imagined that its mother was just off on a feeding excursion. Other possibilities loomed.
Not far out from the icy kaleidoscope of Le Conte Bay we fortuned upon the unmistakable black and white forms of killer whales. Subtle physical and behavioral clues identified this trio as marine mammal-consuming “transient” orcas. We patiently observed the glimpse of their lives offered up at the air we share and imagined what transpired in the water below. A female whale stopped and surfaced beside us with what very well might have been blood on her lips. It does not take much for these top predators to catch a seal meal.
After the exciting distraction we ultimately reached our destination - picturesque Petersburg, Alaska. People explored this authentic fishing community on foot while flightseers winged away. Boardwalk hikers in saturated muskeg habitat on nearby Kupreanof Island observed crafty Steller’s jays, silent and mysterious, and crafty carnivorous insect-catching plants in the bog.
After a Dungeness crab feast we reveled in the remainder of the day’s extraordinary weather on deck as the Sea Bird maneuvered through the serpentine Wrangell Narrows towards further adventures.
