George Island is part of the Tongass National Forest. This is where our planned activities today took us on our expedition ship, the Wilderness Legacy. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I was planning on taking a walk across the island, since no one took me up on the kayak circumnavigation.
George Island sits in Cross Sound, where the Inside Passage meets the outside ocean. Giant waves crash into the west side of the island, creating beautiful rocky cliffs, caves, and even an arch, big enough to drive through. The national forest service lightly maintains a trail on the island from granite cove across the island to a cliff where an old WWII gun is located. It was put there to protect the entrance to the inside passage from Japanese warships and submarines. I guess someone thought that Juneau was a high priority target.
The trail winds through the rainforest, along the spine of the island. You do get occasional views of the water on either side, but are mostly concentrating on the rainforest around you, and not stumbling on the trail. Moss covers everything, and flowers like shy maidens pop up through the moss in places. Hemlocks and spruces raise towards the canopy. When we made it out to the gun, a humpback whale swam by just to complete the scene. We could see all the way across to the white capped mountains of Glacier Bay National Park.
On the way back we stopped to admire a towering sea stack, standing all along on a beach. A moss garden and a few stunted hemlock trees grew from the top. We made one last stop at a hidden tree swing before getting picked up by our skiff for a ride back to the Legacy.
Arrival on George Island at Granite Cove
Terry spotted this juvenile bald eagle down on the rocks with waves crashing behind him.
Our trusty expedition vessel, the Wilderness Legacy with UnCruise
Shy maidens
Ryan going for a swing in the trees
panorama of granite cove and our ship
After our afternoon plans of skiff tours at the Inian Islands were thwarted due to "unsafe" conditions, I led all the kids on a treasure hunt. These wonderful hats showed up about halfway, and then they found some delicious treasure in the treasure chest, which you can see in the next picture.
At the end of the day I found my way up to the bridge to take in the golden hour. Another amazing day with the family here in Southeast Alaska.
-Dai Mar
