Saginaw Bay, Kuiu Island, Alaska
Alaska exists on a scale that defies imagination. It is over twice the size of the next largest state. It has a coastline that exceeds the sum of all of the 48 contiguous states. Denali – The Great One – the tallest mountain in North America. The Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska – our largest National Forest. At 17 million acres, it is the size of the state of West Virginia. The Tongass contains the last great contiguous stands of old growth forest, with trees hundreds of years old, rising to 200 feet, their diameters exceeding six feet. The old trees are festooned with epiphytic mosses and lichens. They are home to the massive nests of bald eagles and the mossy depressions on branches high in the forest canopy that hold the single egg of marbled murrelets. Where old trees have died and fallen, light streams through to the forest floor. The fallen giants are colonized by mosses; these, in turn, are invaded by blueberries, huckleberries, and the seedlings of hemlock. The giant tree has become a nurse log, in its death nurturing the next forest generation. Tree saplings reach up to fill the light gap. Deer and bears follow trails through the forest that have been used by countless generations of their kind since forest covered the landscape following the retreat of the glacial ice some 12,000 years ago.
We began our final day of this trip looking out at Saginaw Bay through a persistent rain. It is, after all, a rainforest, so we tried to be cheerful. At least we could wear the rain gear that we had purchased and packed. But Alaska fooled us once again – the rain abated as we headed for shore for a full morning of activities. Jason Kelley had just begun his explanation of the geology (capsule summary: limestone and fossils) when a black bear was spotted on the adjacent beach. (Geology talks seem to attract wildlife!) We then poked along the forest edge admiring beautiful plants in full flower. Naturalist Sharon Granger made a small detour into the forest and gave out an excited “Yo, bear” followed by a hasty retreat as she encountered a yearling black bear. Farther along, carefully skirting the devil’s club, we entered the cathedral forest to gaze up in awe at the giant trees, and down at tiny saprophytic coralroot orchids in the forest floor.
Across Chatham Strait, the Sea Lion squeezed through the impossibly narrow entrance into Red Bluff Bay on Baranof Island and we boarded Zodiacs for a final tour. The glacier that carved this valley, now flooded by the sea, left steep walls down which myriad waterfalls now plummet and snow avalanches course in winter leaving behind a swath of Sitka alder to interrupt the spruce-hemlock conifer forest. The rains returned, for Baranof Island is one of the wettest places in the Continental U.S. (Nearby Port Walter gets 240” of precipitation per year!) The Sea Lion turned toward Juneau, Alaska’s capital city, and the conclusion of this incredible voyage. The wildlife gave us one final thrill as a humpback whale rose close to the ship during dinner, and then bade us farewell as its flukes disappeared gracefully into the water of Alaska’s Inside Passage.
Alaska exists on a scale that defies imagination. It is over twice the size of the next largest state. It has a coastline that exceeds the sum of all of the 48 contiguous states. Denali – The Great One – the tallest mountain in North America. The Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska – our largest National Forest. At 17 million acres, it is the size of the state of West Virginia. The Tongass contains the last great contiguous stands of old growth forest, with trees hundreds of years old, rising to 200 feet, their diameters exceeding six feet. The old trees are festooned with epiphytic mosses and lichens. They are home to the massive nests of bald eagles and the mossy depressions on branches high in the forest canopy that hold the single egg of marbled murrelets. Where old trees have died and fallen, light streams through to the forest floor. The fallen giants are colonized by mosses; these, in turn, are invaded by blueberries, huckleberries, and the seedlings of hemlock. The giant tree has become a nurse log, in its death nurturing the next forest generation. Tree saplings reach up to fill the light gap. Deer and bears follow trails through the forest that have been used by countless generations of their kind since forest covered the landscape following the retreat of the glacial ice some 12,000 years ago.
We began our final day of this trip looking out at Saginaw Bay through a persistent rain. It is, after all, a rainforest, so we tried to be cheerful. At least we could wear the rain gear that we had purchased and packed. But Alaska fooled us once again – the rain abated as we headed for shore for a full morning of activities. Jason Kelley had just begun his explanation of the geology (capsule summary: limestone and fossils) when a black bear was spotted on the adjacent beach. (Geology talks seem to attract wildlife!) We then poked along the forest edge admiring beautiful plants in full flower. Naturalist Sharon Granger made a small detour into the forest and gave out an excited “Yo, bear” followed by a hasty retreat as she encountered a yearling black bear. Farther along, carefully skirting the devil’s club, we entered the cathedral forest to gaze up in awe at the giant trees, and down at tiny saprophytic coralroot orchids in the forest floor.
Across Chatham Strait, the Sea Lion squeezed through the impossibly narrow entrance into Red Bluff Bay on Baranof Island and we boarded Zodiacs for a final tour. The glacier that carved this valley, now flooded by the sea, left steep walls down which myriad waterfalls now plummet and snow avalanches course in winter leaving behind a swath of Sitka alder to interrupt the spruce-hemlock conifer forest. The rains returned, for Baranof Island is one of the wettest places in the Continental U.S. (Nearby Port Walter gets 240” of precipitation per year!) The Sea Lion turned toward Juneau, Alaska’s capital city, and the conclusion of this incredible voyage. The wildlife gave us one final thrill as a humpback whale rose close to the ship during dinner, and then bade us farewell as its flukes disappeared gracefully into the water of Alaska’s Inside Passage.
