Cascade Creek and Petersburg, Southeast Alaska
After a short visit to enchanted and haunted Scenic Cove in Thomas Bay, visible between the rags and masses of dense fog and low clouds of the early morning, we headed for Cascade Creek. Here we landed immediately after breakfast, and began a series of hikes up into the very wet temperate rainforest, up to a roaring waterfall that sprays the whole area with very refreshing water! Large numbers of plants in bloom were seen, but especially interesting were the Queen’s Cups, members of the lily family, all in two small patches, and in bloom! Others walked further into the forest and over the same river along a narrow bridge higher up the gorge.
Lunch was followed by a lovely afternoon at the small fishing town of Petersburg, founded more than 100 years ago by a Norwegian immigrant. He built a cannery, a sawmill and a dock for the few fishing boats there at the time. Eventually it grew to become the modern and up to very recently, the city with the highest number of millionaires per capita in the U.S. Four daily jet commercial flights! And all thanks to salmon, halibut, the crabs (king and Dungeness) and an enormous amount of hard work. It is today one of Alaska’s major fishing communities.
During our stay here, some of us enjoyed floatplane and helicopter trips up to the glaciers. We also had the marvelous opportunity of walking on a boardwalk along a bog, also called muskeg, and seeing a good number of plants adapted to living in the acid waters of this unique ecosystem. The highlight of these was the sundew, a plant that obtains nitrogen from the flesh of tiny insects it captures and digests.
After a short visit to enchanted and haunted Scenic Cove in Thomas Bay, visible between the rags and masses of dense fog and low clouds of the early morning, we headed for Cascade Creek. Here we landed immediately after breakfast, and began a series of hikes up into the very wet temperate rainforest, up to a roaring waterfall that sprays the whole area with very refreshing water! Large numbers of plants in bloom were seen, but especially interesting were the Queen’s Cups, members of the lily family, all in two small patches, and in bloom! Others walked further into the forest and over the same river along a narrow bridge higher up the gorge.
Lunch was followed by a lovely afternoon at the small fishing town of Petersburg, founded more than 100 years ago by a Norwegian immigrant. He built a cannery, a sawmill and a dock for the few fishing boats there at the time. Eventually it grew to become the modern and up to very recently, the city with the highest number of millionaires per capita in the U.S. Four daily jet commercial flights! And all thanks to salmon, halibut, the crabs (king and Dungeness) and an enormous amount of hard work. It is today one of Alaska’s major fishing communities.
During our stay here, some of us enjoyed floatplane and helicopter trips up to the glaciers. We also had the marvelous opportunity of walking on a boardwalk along a bog, also called muskeg, and seeing a good number of plants adapted to living in the acid waters of this unique ecosystem. The highlight of these was the sundew, a plant that obtains nitrogen from the flesh of tiny insects it captures and digests.
