Inian Islands & Fox Creek
We awoke to sunlight on the Fairweather Mountains. Humpbacks were bouncing and breathing all during our stretch class, diverting all our attention! Our Zodiac tours around the Inian Islands were fascinating. With proximity to Cross Sound and the open Pacific, we were among fast currents and swirling eddies, which naturally provide abundant nutrients for marine life. We saw sea lions catching small halibut, humpbacks displaying spectacular lunge feeding behaviors and sea otters and harbor seals! As always, the bird life was abundant with sightings of horned puffins, tufted puffins and pigeon guillemots.
The afternoon at Fox Creek was warm and sunny. The kayakers saw harbor porpoises and humpback whales on the water and bald eagles soaring above the spruce and hemlocks. Certain islands in Southeast Alaska have as many as one eagle nest for every mile of shoreline! Back on the beach, we made kelp trumpets and an impromptu jump rope with the kelp fronds. The walkers noticed intertidal creatures at the low tide, slightly higher, tall grasses and meadows separating the shoreline and the forest. It was fascinating to see the changes in vegetation as we walked through meadow, forest and muskeg. We saw baneberry, Indian hellebore, and parasitic ground cones on alders. Those that hiked to the waterfall saw white and blue gentians with bumblebees on them, bog orchids, and the carnivorous sundews of the peat bog. This region gets more rain than many places we visited, but today we were lucky! What a gift to visit this remote site on a sunny day!
