Saginaw Bay
After sailing all night from Sitka, we woke up to find ourselves in Red Bluff Bay on the eastern side of Baranof Island. The narrow entrance to the bay led to a spectacular fjord, with waterfalls tumbling down from the snowfields high above. We were treated to viewings of two brown bears, and then the 200-foot-deep water in this glacial fjord allowed Captain Graves to manoever the Sea Lion within just a few feet of the bay’s largest waterfall.
After breakfast, we headed back out into Chatham Strait, cruising south to Saginaw Bay on the north end of Kuiu Island. The geologic setting could not have changed more drastically! Instead of the dark, rugged, metamorphic rocks of Baranof Island, we were in the “Banana Belt” of the Alexander Terrane. Immediately upon landing the Zodiacs at Halleck Harbor, raingear came off, parkas were discarded, and we basked in the intense sun reflected off white limestone of the Pybus Formation. Halleck Harbor is a fascinating warm microclimate, with the plants leafing and blooming several weeks earlier than elsewhere in Southeast Alaska.
Walks along the beach juxtaposed the modern tidal ecosystem with 260 million year brachiopod fossils in the underlying rock. As the tide withdrew, we saw a huge variety of intertidal life, perhaps most spectacularly the hermit crabs with their foot-long trails traced in the tidal mud. And we learned that pearls don’t form around sand grains in oysters, but instead around parasites. One more urban myth debunked!
Escaping the reflecting oven of Halleck Harbor, we entered the blissfully cool temperate rain forest, a classic example of an intact forest ecosystem, characterized by huge western hemlocks, underlying Sitka spruce, and a lush understory of devils club (don’t touch!), skunk cabbage, alder, and many other plants, mosses, and lichens. And the woods were alive with the calls of thrushes, kinglets, winter wrens and crows, with an occasional bald eagle far overhead. Meanwhile, kayakers had a good look at hydroids living on the kelp, fish egg masses in the water, as well as pictographs on the limestone cliffs at the northern entrance to Halleck Harbor.
Bronzed and dehydrated, we returned to the Sea Lion and cruised north across the glassy waters of Frederick Sound. Here we were rewarded by numerous sightings of humpback whales, silhouetted against the twilight colors over Admiralty Island.
After sailing all night from Sitka, we woke up to find ourselves in Red Bluff Bay on the eastern side of Baranof Island. The narrow entrance to the bay led to a spectacular fjord, with waterfalls tumbling down from the snowfields high above. We were treated to viewings of two brown bears, and then the 200-foot-deep water in this glacial fjord allowed Captain Graves to manoever the Sea Lion within just a few feet of the bay’s largest waterfall.
After breakfast, we headed back out into Chatham Strait, cruising south to Saginaw Bay on the north end of Kuiu Island. The geologic setting could not have changed more drastically! Instead of the dark, rugged, metamorphic rocks of Baranof Island, we were in the “Banana Belt” of the Alexander Terrane. Immediately upon landing the Zodiacs at Halleck Harbor, raingear came off, parkas were discarded, and we basked in the intense sun reflected off white limestone of the Pybus Formation. Halleck Harbor is a fascinating warm microclimate, with the plants leafing and blooming several weeks earlier than elsewhere in Southeast Alaska.
Walks along the beach juxtaposed the modern tidal ecosystem with 260 million year brachiopod fossils in the underlying rock. As the tide withdrew, we saw a huge variety of intertidal life, perhaps most spectacularly the hermit crabs with their foot-long trails traced in the tidal mud. And we learned that pearls don’t form around sand grains in oysters, but instead around parasites. One more urban myth debunked!
Escaping the reflecting oven of Halleck Harbor, we entered the blissfully cool temperate rain forest, a classic example of an intact forest ecosystem, characterized by huge western hemlocks, underlying Sitka spruce, and a lush understory of devils club (don’t touch!), skunk cabbage, alder, and many other plants, mosses, and lichens. And the woods were alive with the calls of thrushes, kinglets, winter wrens and crows, with an occasional bald eagle far overhead. Meanwhile, kayakers had a good look at hydroids living on the kelp, fish egg masses in the water, as well as pictographs on the limestone cliffs at the northern entrance to Halleck Harbor.
Bronzed and dehydrated, we returned to the Sea Lion and cruised north across the glassy waters of Frederick Sound. Here we were rewarded by numerous sightings of humpback whales, silhouetted against the twilight colors over Admiralty Island.
