Red Bluff Bay, Baranof Island, Alaska
Our fog horn was the only sound that cut the morning stillness and the thick blanket of gray and white mist that hung over the water. As if in a fairy tale, the fog parted as we rounded the point of Red Bluff Bay, unfolding a view of majestic Alaskan scenery that none of us will soon forget. It is this kind of vista that brings so many people to southeast Alaska and also what keeps lots of us coming back year after year. We cruised to the head of the bay, pulling in so close to the towering Cascade Falls that we could reach out and touch the spray from the bow of the ship. What a way to begin our day’s adventures!
We departed the bay during breakfast and headed north along the east coast of Baranof Island during the morning, stopping to observe a humpback whale feeding. We also took a look at Kasnyku Bay which is the site of a fish hatchery, a beautiful waterfall called Hidden Falls and a recent landslide. These features afforded the natural history staff ample opportunity to share information with us as we gathered on deck in the sunshine. We dropped anchor in Kelp Bay and continued our sun-worship with a deck lunch followed by frosty servings of sherbet. We spent the afternoon – a nearly perfect one in terms of weather – hiking on Crow Island, kayaking with harbor seals and beneath several pairs of bald eagle (one with two eaglets in their nest near the shoreline), and exploring the coast by Zodiac. A lunge-feeding humpback was the main attraction on some of the Zodiac cruises while others found a female merganser and her young, schools of fish, sea stars, murrelets and numerous other avian species. It was a full and wonderful day.
Our fog horn was the only sound that cut the morning stillness and the thick blanket of gray and white mist that hung over the water. As if in a fairy tale, the fog parted as we rounded the point of Red Bluff Bay, unfolding a view of majestic Alaskan scenery that none of us will soon forget. It is this kind of vista that brings so many people to southeast Alaska and also what keeps lots of us coming back year after year. We cruised to the head of the bay, pulling in so close to the towering Cascade Falls that we could reach out and touch the spray from the bow of the ship. What a way to begin our day’s adventures!
We departed the bay during breakfast and headed north along the east coast of Baranof Island during the morning, stopping to observe a humpback whale feeding. We also took a look at Kasnyku Bay which is the site of a fish hatchery, a beautiful waterfall called Hidden Falls and a recent landslide. These features afforded the natural history staff ample opportunity to share information with us as we gathered on deck in the sunshine. We dropped anchor in Kelp Bay and continued our sun-worship with a deck lunch followed by frosty servings of sherbet. We spent the afternoon – a nearly perfect one in terms of weather – hiking on Crow Island, kayaking with harbor seals and beneath several pairs of bald eagle (one with two eaglets in their nest near the shoreline), and exploring the coast by Zodiac. A lunge-feeding humpback was the main attraction on some of the Zodiac cruises while others found a female merganser and her young, schools of fish, sea stars, murrelets and numerous other avian species. It was a full and wonderful day.
