Cascade Creek, Alaska, 5/23/2024, National Geographic Sea Bird
Aboard the
National Geographic Sea Bird
Alaska
A low hanging fog and rainy drizzle added atmosphere to our hikes this morning. We explored the flowers, berries, lichens, mosses, and trees of the lush temperate rainforest making our way to Cascade Creek waterfall. Everything glistened with moisture, making photography fun along the way!
Kerri is a passionate lifelong learner and educator who embraces the world as her classroom. She has worked extensively in international and environmental education around the globe. She is currently a professor at Unity Environmental University in M...
We arrived early to the town of Wrangell, excited to get the activities underway for our morning ashore. The excursion options included a jet boat tour up the Stikine River, a visit to the Shake’s house (traditional Long House), and investigating petroglyphs on a local beach. We returned to National Geographic Sea Bird for a delicious lunch and then went out for the afternoon activities. The options included a visit to the town museum and a hike up Mt. Dewey. We had lovely weather for our wonderful day of exploring.
The misty Alaska landscape was no stranger to us this morning as we woke to anchor in Thomas Bay. Our expedition today took us on tours around more of the Tongass National Forests’ splendor. We embarked on trails to see the falls of Cascade Creek, which were immensely powerful, casting misty spray across the forest of Western hemlock and Sitka spruce. Everything in the forest was incredibly dense, with life in all areas of the over and understory. In the afternoon, we explored Ruth Island, this time bushwacking along a tributary to make our way up to a beaver-dammed pond. The sight was fantastical, set among the forest with reed grass, toads, passerines, and even dense clumps of sundew. Guests adventured with large smiles on their faces as we felt the presence of wild Alaska.
Alaska can be soft green moss in the mist, slow, peaceful, and still. It can also be thunder, shrapnel, and sudden violence. At the head of the fjord, and the terminus of the Dawes Glacier, we watched as seracs came crashing down into the water, sending shards of ice hundreds of meters away. Gulls and terns danced along the surface, picking off small forage fish churned up in the chaos and outflow. Tidewater glaciers in Southeast Alaska are a surprising collection of life. As these ice rivers travel down toward the sea, they deliver a cold, sediment-rich pulse of nutrients, like iron and silica, that fuel phytoplankton blooms. These blooms form the base of the food chain and attract zooplankton and crustaceans, which in turn attract small fish, birds, and seals. The nutrient pulses from these glaciers fuel not only the abundance of life found within the fjords but also flow out to sea and support the entire marine ecosystem of Southeast Alaska. The calvings we see as spectacular displays of mother nature are far more complex and important to the overall ecosystem, perhaps making it more beautiful and breathtaking in the understanding.
