The sun barely sets right now in Southeast Alaska, and quite a few people were on the bow of National Geographic Quest before 6:00 a.m. It is often said, the vigilant on the bow are rewarded, and before breakfast this morning, we saw a brown bear, a couple Sitka black tail deer, Dall’s porpoises, and humpback whales. After breakfast, we had several briefings, but we were interrupted by a group of humpback whales near the shore. In the afternoon, everyone had the opportunity to set foot in the Tongass National Rainforest for the first time. Guests went kayaking, and a few enjoyed a beach walk. It was a pretty amazing first day for our expedition.
- Daily Expedition Reports
- 27 Jun 2022
Peril Strait & Iyoukeen , 6/27/2022, National Geographic Quest
- Aboard the National Geographic Quest
- Alaska
Kelly Coursey Gray, Naturalist/Certified Photo Instructor
I like to remind people that there are very few big surprises left in life, but if you are out in nature, with an open mind and a lot of time, you never know what you will find.
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Glacier Bay National Park
We awoke to a wall of ice towering outside of the ship. Sometime in the night we anchored alongside the monumental Johns Hopkins Glacier. Along the base of the glacier, hundreds of harbor seals lounged on the rafts of ice, and stunning mountain views accompanied the impressive natural feature for which the park was named. After eating breakfast with a glacial blue backdrop, we pulled anchor and began our exploration of the park in earnest. We visited several more glaciers, including prime examples of tidewater, hanging, and beached varieties; we also observed large numbers of sea otters and surf scoters. After lunch we turned our focus to wildlife and were rewarded with views of mountain goats on Gloomy Knob, as well as a brown bear excavating a comfortable resting spot on the beach. Later we were treated to a surprise concert by one of our guests (award winning musician Jim Peterick). We wrapped up the day with a visit to South Marble Island where dozens of tufted puffins and large rafts of Steller sea lions gave excellent views.
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National Geographic Quest
Inian Islands and Salt Chuck Bay
Today we began our adventures by dropping anchor at one of our favorite locations in Southeast Alaska, the Inian Islands! We disembarked National Geographic Quest to hop into our Zodiacs to explore this wild archipelago. Later in the day we repositioned to an anchorage in Port Althorp, known as Salt Chuck Bay. We got the chance to explore by kayaking as well as hiking through the meadow in the bay and the lush rainforest. It was a fantastic day in Southeast Alaska!