Inside Passage 2005, Journal Entry
Rainforest
Don’t let appearances deceive you. The Inside Passage encompasses North America’s largest temperate rain forest, enclosed within 17 million acres of the Tongass National Forest. Everywhere you look there is water.
Salmon
Determined to reach her birthplace above the waterfalls to spawn. Mating will culminate in a ritualistic dance that marks the end of one generation and the beginning of the next.
Brown Bears
Admiralty Island is home to one of the largest populations of brown bears in the world. With one bear for every square mile there are over 1600 that roam the island.
Humpback Whales
One last breath before sounding to depths of several hundred feet to feed. It may be five to ten minutes before they surface again!
Birds
Migrating birds depend on this wilderness for sustenance along their journey between the hemispheres.
Icebergs
Dazzling remnants of a glacier, the ice continues its journey until transformed by the elements. Seagulls use the icebergs as floating platforms for rest in between scavenging for scraps of salmon from feeding brown bears.
Glaciers
Ice, or the evidence of ice, is everywhere. Fjords over a thousand feet deep mark the passage of ancient, massive ice sheets. From active, calving tidal glaciers, to hanging glaciers and the valleys carved out by their retreat, from snow capped mountains to abundant waterfalls.
Colors
Pastels and deep rich colors; forms, some hard, seemingly fixed, and immutable, others soft, fleeting and ever changing; the rush of water, or the slow dance of the mist; the cry of an eagle in flight, the bellow of a whale surfacing; the smell of life in progress; the chill of the damp air - all these add to the mystique of the Inside Passage.
Don’t let appearances deceive you. The Inside Passage encompasses North America’s largest temperate rain forest, enclosed within 17 million acres of the Tongass National Forest. Everywhere you look there is water.
Salmon
Determined to reach her birthplace above the waterfalls to spawn. Mating will culminate in a ritualistic dance that marks the end of one generation and the beginning of the next.
Brown Bears
Admiralty Island is home to one of the largest populations of brown bears in the world. With one bear for every square mile there are over 1600 that roam the island.
Humpback Whales
One last breath before sounding to depths of several hundred feet to feed. It may be five to ten minutes before they surface again!
Birds
Migrating birds depend on this wilderness for sustenance along their journey between the hemispheres.
Icebergs
Dazzling remnants of a glacier, the ice continues its journey until transformed by the elements. Seagulls use the icebergs as floating platforms for rest in between scavenging for scraps of salmon from feeding brown bears.
Glaciers
Ice, or the evidence of ice, is everywhere. Fjords over a thousand feet deep mark the passage of ancient, massive ice sheets. From active, calving tidal glaciers, to hanging glaciers and the valleys carved out by their retreat, from snow capped mountains to abundant waterfalls.
Colors
Pastels and deep rich colors; forms, some hard, seemingly fixed, and immutable, others soft, fleeting and ever changing; the rush of water, or the slow dance of the mist; the cry of an eagle in flight, the bellow of a whale surfacing; the smell of life in progress; the chill of the damp air - all these add to the mystique of the Inside Passage.