Baranof Island
After sailing all night from Petersburg we crossed Chatham Strait and woke up to find ourselves in Red Bluff Bay, on the east coast of Baranof Island. The narrow entrance to the bay led to a spectacular natural cathedral, with waterfalls tumbling down from the snowfields thousands of feet above. We were treated to a sighting of three brown bears at the far end of the bay, and then the 200-foot-deep water in this glacial fjord allowed Captain Kalbach to maneuver the Sea Bird to within just a few feet of the largest waterfall.
Leaving Red Bluff Bay, we were treated to a good view of Red Bluff itself, a sparsely vegetated knob of red ultramafic intrusion, crystallized at 2000°F and a depth of 30 miles and then squirted up into 800°F metamorphic rocks, all this happening nearly 200 million years ago. Red Bluff’s sparse vegetation is due to its high content of minerals inhospitable to plants and thus has only sparse vegetation.
We headed east into Chatham Strait to view humpback whales and porpoises in Frederick sound, and then we journeyed north along Chatham strait between the glaciated, rugged mountain range of Baranof Island on our left and the subdued, heavily forested country of Admiralty Island on the right. As predicted, the geology talk was interrupted by charismatic megafauna, this time Dall’s porpoises surfing on the Sea Bird’s bow wave!
After lunch, we anchored in Kelp Bay, on the northeast corner of Baranof Island and launched the Zodiacs and kayaks for exploration of Pond Island. The hikers were rewarded with good views of a beaver dam and another educational walk through the muskeg, with its variety of tiny plants, including the carnivorous sun dew. The black metamorphic phyllite made great “skipping stones”, but the overlying glacial eratics of light-colored granite were up to 10 feet across and took the Pleistocene glaciers to move them here.
After a relaxing wine-tasting with hors d’oeuvres, the Sea Bird steamed north along the east coast of Chichagof Island in a beautiful sunny evening in Southeast Alaska.
After sailing all night from Petersburg we crossed Chatham Strait and woke up to find ourselves in Red Bluff Bay, on the east coast of Baranof Island. The narrow entrance to the bay led to a spectacular natural cathedral, with waterfalls tumbling down from the snowfields thousands of feet above. We were treated to a sighting of three brown bears at the far end of the bay, and then the 200-foot-deep water in this glacial fjord allowed Captain Kalbach to maneuver the Sea Bird to within just a few feet of the largest waterfall.
Leaving Red Bluff Bay, we were treated to a good view of Red Bluff itself, a sparsely vegetated knob of red ultramafic intrusion, crystallized at 2000°F and a depth of 30 miles and then squirted up into 800°F metamorphic rocks, all this happening nearly 200 million years ago. Red Bluff’s sparse vegetation is due to its high content of minerals inhospitable to plants and thus has only sparse vegetation.
We headed east into Chatham Strait to view humpback whales and porpoises in Frederick sound, and then we journeyed north along Chatham strait between the glaciated, rugged mountain range of Baranof Island on our left and the subdued, heavily forested country of Admiralty Island on the right. As predicted, the geology talk was interrupted by charismatic megafauna, this time Dall’s porpoises surfing on the Sea Bird’s bow wave!
After lunch, we anchored in Kelp Bay, on the northeast corner of Baranof Island and launched the Zodiacs and kayaks for exploration of Pond Island. The hikers were rewarded with good views of a beaver dam and another educational walk through the muskeg, with its variety of tiny plants, including the carnivorous sun dew. The black metamorphic phyllite made great “skipping stones”, but the overlying glacial eratics of light-colored granite were up to 10 feet across and took the Pleistocene glaciers to move them here.
After a relaxing wine-tasting with hors d’oeuvres, the Sea Bird steamed north along the east coast of Chichagof Island in a beautiful sunny evening in Southeast Alaska.
