Blue skies and beautiful weather continue to grace our exceptional northward journey. After a brief morning stop in Ketchikan, (a place that receives 160 inches of rain each year) we were officially welcomed back into the USA and underway for Misty Fiords National Monument—2.2 million acres of wilderness and our first destination in sunny Southeast Alaska. We stopped for a bit to enjoy several foraging humpback whales near a steep rocky shore. Newly arrived from the Hawaiian Islands, the whales were very likely enjoying some fresh herring after fasting through the winter months.
As we moved deeper into the wilderness surrounding Misty Fiords, the sheer rock walls rose ever higher—towering sheer ramparts and giant granitic domes capped with snow. Thousands of feet above us, we could see where ice had covered and smoothed the terrain, and we began to pass waterfall after waterfall descending from the melting snowfields and tumbling into the sea. Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and Alaska yellow cedar clung improbably to the cliffside with their roots crammed into small spaces in the rock.
We took to the small boats—kayaks and expedition landing craft all staging in Owl Pass for a special opportunity to photograph the National Geographic Sea Bird as she sailed past us through the narrow cut. Exploring the edges of God’s Pocket (the stunning back fjord) we found infinite natural beauty and a few exquisite small signs of spring…yellow wood violets and Alaska violets, delicate strands of blooming stink current and a Rufous hummingbird feeding on salmonberry flowers.
