Kelly spent her childhood and adolescence in Maryland, exploring the wonders of the natural world wherever she could. This innate curiosity about the environment around her led Kelly to question why people and animals were driven to live their lives ...
Enter travel details to receive reports from a single expedition
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Send Daily Expedition Reports to friends and family
*By clicking the submit button, I authorize Lindblad Expeditions to email me; however, I am able to unsubscribe at any time. For more details, see our Privacy Policy.
Please note: All Daily Expedition Reports (DERs) are posted Monday-Friday,
during normal business hours. DERs are written onboard the ship only and do
not apply to land-based portions of expeditions.
Along with our longer forest hike and a photography walk this morning, we enjoyed beach explorations and kayaking in the bay. There were clams shooting streams of water, crabs walking around the sand, barnacles clinging to small rocks, and a pair of common loons and a sea otter floating about in the water. After lunch, we explored around the Keku Islands, looked for wildlife, and admired the scenery from expedition landing crafts. It rained much of the day, which made for a very authentic temperate rainforest experience and a great test of our gear!
This morning, National Geographic Sea Lion cruised past New Eddystone Rock on the way into Misty Fjords National Monument. New Eddystone Rock was named in 1793 by Captain George Vancouver due to its likeness to the lighthouse off Plymouth, England. Misty Fjords National Monument is often referred to as the “Yosemite of the North” with its 3,000-foot-high granite cliffs, which were carved by glaciers over 17,000 years ago. The bridge team navigated into Rudyard Bay over breakfast, and the vessel made its way close to the back of the bay. As we cruised, it became obvious how this area got its name. The mountains around us were shrouded in a fine mist, making this picturesque landscape absolutely stunning. Towards the back of Rudyard Bay, there is a very narrow passage called Owl’s Pass. Owl’s Pass is named for the rock formation inside of it, which is a result of exfoliation. Arches formed in the granite wall give the appearance of an owl’s face. The Zodiacs took off through Owl’s Pass and explored the back of Rudyard Bay. Zodiac cruises were able to go right up to the waterfalls and make their way into the salmon stream, finding harbor seals along the way. After lunch, the vessel headed to Punchbowl Cove near the entrance to Rudyard Bay for the afternoon. Some of us explored this area from kayak, a few brave travelers explored by stand-up paddleboard, and some went out in a Zodiac to go a bit farther. As National Geographic Sea Lion cruised out of Misty Fjords National Monument and around Revillagigedo Island in the evening, we searched for wildlife as we continued north on our expedition. Today was a wonderful start to an incredible journey.
There is nothing that welcomes you to Alaska quite like a morning surrounded by humpback whales. The quiet and cool of the morning brought us a distant bright light, with more than a dozen whales dancing beneath it. Some of them were even kind enough to show us their flukes, in hopes that we could identify them later. The whales in this location were going for krill, which our captain could see in a distinctive band 150 feet below the surface. The whales swam coolly, making quick dives before moving to their next location. Our National Geographic photographer and certified photo instructors teamed up to help guests get the best images possible. On this photo expedition, much more time is dedicated to the art of photography, allowing our guests to be experiential learners. We made our way back toward Tracy Arm to begin our navigation to South Sawyer Glacier. The steep walls of granite were teeming with waterfalls, glacial striations, and glacial chatter marks, showing the power that water, fresh and frozen, can have on the landscape no matter how much time passes. The depth of the fjord, coupled with its well-polished perimeters, holds a striking resemblance to other places of natural wonder, such as Yosemite, for many of our explorers. The afternoon was spent experiencing the South Sawyer Glacier and learning more about glacier anatomy and dynamics from one of our naturalists on board. Guests were in awe of a beautiful major calving event, followed by various smaller calvings, a rockslide, and several playful seals. The dynamics of the glacial environment were alive and well! All of this was made even better by the addition of hot chocolate. We brought home a piece of ice to have a contest to see how long it would take to melt, bringing a bit of our glacier experience on board with us.
