Our group chose to hire a Beaver float plane and guide to take them fly-fishing on the north end of Chichagof island so we left a little early without them and met them in the small native village of Hoonah. Hoonah had recently become a favorite cruise ship stop for among other things its Zipline which is over one-mile-long with a drop of over 1300 feet. The group decided to come back the next day for this experience. In the meantime, we cruised up the Bay to a beautiful secluded spot which just happened to be full of Dungeness crab. After the zipline we cruised up Icy Strait into Glacier Bay National Park. Though there were not the usual numbers of humpback whales in the strait we did have the good fortune to find what we refer to as a “serial breacher”. This whale breached almost without stopping for over an hour: Great photo op.
We have a very special permit which allows us access to the park all summer long. This was Christine Brown’s second trip with us but her first into Glacier Bay. The Bay is truly defines awesome; especially when the weather is as good as it was our week. Early June is time for both goats and sea otters to reproduce and we were fortunate to see the just born “kids” learning to run up and down the steep cliffs within hours of their birth; and baby sea otters riding on their mothers’ stomachs (Sea Otters usually float on their backs).
We also large Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear swimming across a channel just in front of us. And of course we were dazzled by the huge tide-water glaciers, the 15,000-foot-high Fairweather range, and sea birds, including Puffin, nesting in the park: What a week!
Geoff and Debbie you are the best hosts ever! We loved our 2nd trip so much!!!..We cannot wait for our 3rd trip! Christine Brown and Jim Head; Dallas Texas.