Our first port call brought us to Ketchikan, where we had arranged for a trip to the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary. This is a privately held enterprise, not a government-sponsored park. Nevertheless, I found it an excellent experience. An elevated boardwalk provides a great vantage point to see foliage and wildlife. For the more adventuresome, there is ziplining at the top of the forest.
The temperate rainforest setting is beautifully eerie – perpetual fog, but not cold, with moss or lichen growing on anything stationary.
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| red elderberry |
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| Salmonberry - fruits like raspberries, in several colors. Yes, there is a black bear in there. This is the best photo I have of salmonberry. |
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| Everything was dripping wet. |
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| A lichen called Old Man's Beard |
Salmonberry, with its colorful raspberry-like fruits was common. It’s edible for humans and bears, although the guide told us the fruits taste sour. But it felt wrong to me to disturb the forest by tasting one.
Our guide Basil instructed that if we saw a bear, we should not shout, “LOOK! A BEAR!” but rather silently raise our hands up in the air (like bear claws), shake our hands around, and point to where we spotted the bear. We had been told ahead of time to not bring any food. No flash photography. It seems a good practice for humans to not draw attention to themselves when in the presence of a bear, although I gather that black bears are less threatening to humans than other bear species.
The easiest way to spot a bear is to watch for movements in the ground foliage. We saw at least three black bears, possibly more, although they might have been the same bears in different spots. How thrilling it was to see the bears making their way through the forest!
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| Mother bear |
two bear cubs, about 1 1/2 years old
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| When we were off the elevated boardwalk, the guide gave us extra instruction on what to do if we encounter a bear. Mainly: don't run. |
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| bald eagle |
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| bald eagle |
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| Sitka black-tailed deer. In Pennsylvania we only have white-tailed deer. |
This website has a much better photo of bald eagles, and explains how the Orange Menace’s regime (of course) reduces incentives for private companies to use practices to protect birds.
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| Layers of trees |
The first solo car trip I took without my wee children (at the time I had two) was in Nova Scotia. I rented a car in Halifax and drove northeast for two hours to a small town for a family event. There were no other cars on the road, and I seemed surrounded by nothing but trees for miles and miles.
When it comes to tree population, Alaska was Nova Scotia on steroids. While hardly setting foot in the Tongass National Forest, I am grateful for its existence.
Among the excursions it is good we did not do in Juneau are:
Dog sledding on Mendenhall Glacier
Seaplane
Self guided jeep tour
Bicycle tour
Bike and Brew
Anya pointed out interesting plants along the Trail of Time. The Northern ground cone, which rather strangely grows not on a pine tree but right from the ground, is parasitic and does not do photosynthesis.
Devil’s Club (“Oplopanax horridus” - what a great scientific name!), has medicinal uses but we were warned to stay away from those nasty-looking thorns.
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| Northern ground cone |
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| Devil's Club |
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| lupine wildflower near Mendenhall Glacier |
The Trail of Time also showed us a stream with sockeye salmon cavorting.
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| salmon in stream |
Our photo safari included a trip aboard Captain Rob’s small vessel (only 14 people!) for whale watching. That was when Anya revealed her camera with an enormous lens. I was glad I had brought my 55-200 mm zoom lens, which I had not used for maybe 10 years, but recognized I was in the presence of photography gurus.
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| That's the Common Household Husband standing at the bow of the boat. Anya is just to the left of him. I could not stand in the bow for fear of provoking extreme vertigo. |
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| Captain Rob said the people in that small boat on the left were breaking the rules of the Marine Mammal Protection Act by being too close to the whales. |
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| Humpback whale tail and mountains |
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| Whale spouts |
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| These whale were working cooperatively on getting dinner ready. The birds follow along for a treat. |
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| Dorsal fins and spouting |
In Icy Strait Point we noticed pine trees with cute little pine cones -the Lodgepole Pine. The tiny cones are actually male pollen. The white flowers are spirea - a bush we have in our own garden here at home.
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| Pine tree with teensy "cones", and white spirea flowers |
This is my one photo of fireweed flowers, which are ubiquitous in Southeast Alaska. Alas, we only saw the big fields of its striking bright color from afar. Anya told us of a famous Alaskan saying: "When fireweed turns to cotton, summer is soon forgotten."
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Posts in this series:
Alaska: rocks, fjords, and water
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