Our day began under a Southeast Alaska fog so dense that our planned whale watching became an exercise in examining different shades of gray. Shouts of excitement erupted later in the morning when we distinguished the first ghostly outline of Admiralty Island’s skyline. Slowly, the day unveiled its colors and finally, the visibility improved so greatly that we were able to spot the misty blow of a whale against a dark green forest backdrop. We had found a cow and calf humpback pair leisurely feeding in Chatham Strait. We relaxed on the bow, watching their movements and were finally rewarded for our time spent searching when the whales came up just beside the ship and then logged at the surface, breathing several times and giving all of us good, long looks at them.

Later, we cruised into Peril Strait and then anchored in Hanus Bay along the mountainous coast of Baranof Island. As we waited for the tide to rise high enough for kayak and Zodiac operations along the shoreline, we spotted three bears from the ship. A female brown bear with two young cubs plied the rocky shore just above the tide line. They strolled through fringing grasses, wandered into and out of the forest and finally disappeared behind a nearby streambank.

Our kayak and Zodiac explorations of the shoreline completed our day of Alaskan wildlife sightings as we navigated a stream thick with salmon. The waters were deep enough to allow us to approach the stream’s first waterfall and, along with the numerous bald eagles in attendance, we watched the salmon occasionally jump in their attempts to gain the next tier.

It seems that we had managed a total reversal of the morning’s zero visibility. It was instead, a day of sighting the full complement of Alaska’s whales, bears, salmon, and eagles.