Chatham Straight, Southeast Alaska
The Sea Bird spent the day cruising and stopped along the deepest, longest fjord in North America. In the morning, we anchored in Pavlov Bay on the east side of Chichagof Island to do hiking and kayaking. The hikers walked along the shore and through the temperate rainforest to a waterfall that had salmon jumping up it. Most of us hiked farther to a small lake that was still surrounded by wetlands. We saw numerous holes in the ground where brown bears had excavated skunk cabbage roots with their huge paws. There was even a beaver hut and beaver-cut trees! The kayakers paddled over to the salmon stream and admired the waterfall cascading down the rocks. There was quite a bit of excitement when a large brown bear came out of the woods and caught some salmon within sight of several kayakers. A group of hikers didn’t catch a glimpse of the bear, but had the exhilarating experience of knowing that the 1000-pound animal was eating a fish very nearby as they boarded the Zodiac to return to the ship.
In the afternoon, the ship anchored in Basket Bay. We took Zodiac rides around this beautiful bay with steep rocky shorelines and had a surprise when the boat took us into a limestone cave called the grotto! We looked up at this gorgeous natural bridge, as well as flowers and trees growing on its surface and hanging over its sides.
The Sea Bird cruised southwest into Peril Straight, which is the long, circuitous route to Sitka. As we cruised along, we could see the forested shorelines on both sides of this narrow passage as this wonderful day came to a close.
The Sea Bird spent the day cruising and stopped along the deepest, longest fjord in North America. In the morning, we anchored in Pavlov Bay on the east side of Chichagof Island to do hiking and kayaking. The hikers walked along the shore and through the temperate rainforest to a waterfall that had salmon jumping up it. Most of us hiked farther to a small lake that was still surrounded by wetlands. We saw numerous holes in the ground where brown bears had excavated skunk cabbage roots with their huge paws. There was even a beaver hut and beaver-cut trees! The kayakers paddled over to the salmon stream and admired the waterfall cascading down the rocks. There was quite a bit of excitement when a large brown bear came out of the woods and caught some salmon within sight of several kayakers. A group of hikers didn’t catch a glimpse of the bear, but had the exhilarating experience of knowing that the 1000-pound animal was eating a fish very nearby as they boarded the Zodiac to return to the ship.
In the afternoon, the ship anchored in Basket Bay. We took Zodiac rides around this beautiful bay with steep rocky shorelines and had a surprise when the boat took us into a limestone cave called the grotto! We looked up at this gorgeous natural bridge, as well as flowers and trees growing on its surface and hanging over its sides.
The Sea Bird cruised southwest into Peril Straight, which is the long, circuitous route to Sitka. As we cruised along, we could see the forested shorelines on both sides of this narrow passage as this wonderful day came to a close.
