What a privilege to visit the artists and craftspeople of Haida Gwaii in Old Masset. Today we visited two master carvers, Jim Hart and Christian White. They were amazingly generous in opening their homes and workshops to our guests. Works in progress in various forms of media were all about the workshops, including woodcarvings, drawings, and argillite and bronze statuary. Pictures of the works will not be shown here, as the artists requested that we not post images of their work on social media. This is just one of a multitude of reasons to come to Haida Gwaii and see for yourself what centuries of carving artistry can produce.
9/5/2024
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National Geographic Sea Bird
Glacier Bay National Park, Southeast Alaska
“Glacier Bay Day” is a naturalist’s delight, with its beautiful landscapes, plentiful wildlife, and the majesty of the wilderness. I spent much of the day on the bow, scouring my surroundings for creatures great and small with guests, staff, and crew alike. The day began with views of Lamplugh and Johns Hopkins Glaciers, the latter of which provided ample views of calving and harbor seals. As we continued our cruise through the bay, we were treated to glimpses of bald eagles, red throated loons, and harlequin ducks who flew in front of our bow. Terrestrial wildlife had their moment at Gloomy Knob, where well over a dozen mountain goats roamed the cliffside and four brown bears lumbered through the alluvial plains of the park. I considered the day’s highlight to be our evening cruise past South Marble Island. Tufted puffins, common murres, pelagic cormorants, and gulls of various clades took to the skies while sea otters, Steller sea lions, and a lone humpback whale provided an epic aquatic display.