A (not so) Nighttime Stroll

During Stephany's Alaska visit, we spent a night in a backcountry cabin, did a little fishing, went on a whale watch, and hung out a bit in downtown Juneau where we ate Alaskan king crab. We took a short stroll on her first night in town to get her acquainted with the area on the Dredge Lakes trail system, right behind the Forest Service bunkhouse. What I expected to be a short, lazy walk, turned into excitement when we had an up-close encounter with an adult black bear! Stephany even went out for a hike on the beautiful Perseverance Trail with my friend, Lauren, one day while I was at work, where she saw a baby porcupine huddled up on the trail. I wanted her to get the full "Alaska experience", and I'd say she definitely had it.

That wasn't all, though. Stephany was able to celebrate her birthday while visiting me on June 21st, which also happens to be the summer solstice: the longest day of the year! Even though Juneau is pretty far south compared to other parts of Alaska, you still get almost 20 hours of daylight around the solstice, and even the few nighttime hours seem more like dusk. On multiple occasions, I remember going outside around 2:00 A.M., looking at the sky, and thinking "it's really not that dark," and it was definitely light enough to walk around without a flashlight.

On one of her last days visiting me, around 9:00 P.M. and with plenty of daylight to be had, we decided to take a walk down to the visitor center where I worked, and check out the Nugget Falls trail.

I lived about 1.5 miles from the visitor center, and the road is usually pretty quiet at night. It was a nice walk, and the air was cool, but pleasant.

We walked on the sidewalk down the Glacier Spur Road until we reached the visitor center, where the pathway lights were creating some interesting colors and shapes in the evening dusk. The glacier in the background made for a good photo op!

We soon reached the Nugget Falls trail, which is the most popular hike near the visitor center. It's only 1.5 miles round trip, which made it a popular choice for cruise ship passengers visiting the glacier who were short on time. Of course, at this time of night, we had no cruise ship tourists to compete with. We basically had the trail to ourselves.

It was about as nice of an evening as you can hope for in Juneau, and the conditions were pretty much clear. When you live in a temperate rainforest, these are the evenings that you love to take advantage of.

The lighting was perfect, and reflections from the mountains, sky, glacier, icebergs, and waterfall were all casting incredible reflections on the glassy-calm Mendenhall Lake.

There was virtually no wind, and you would have been hard-pressed to find a single ripple. This wasn't my first time hiking to Nugget Falls, but it felt like a new experience. Everything is different at night.

Approaching Nugget Falls:

All the credit goes to Stephany for these awesome shots.

We stayed at the waterfall for a while, messing with the camera settings and enjoying everything around is. This is the hike that all the tourists went on, and I never thought I could enjoy it to this extent. I just kept thinking: "this is Alaska...this is it."

 

Soon, I remembered that the recreation area is closed to the public after midnight. It's easy to lose track of time during an Alaskan summer, but it had to be getting close. We were ready to head back anyway.

 

We enjoyed the walk back almost as much as the walk to the glacier. It was late - past midnight by now - but it really didn't feel like it. We were too caught up in our surroundings to care about time.

 

If nothing else, this walk made me realize that you don't have to get too far off the beaten path to experience the unique beauty of a place. Something as simple as seeing a place at night for the first time can give you an entirely different perspective. At least, it does for me.

 

Stephany would return home in a couple of days, but this was an awesome way to wrap up her trip. I was happy she made it, and even happier that I could show off a few things that Alaska has to offer. There's always more, but that's what adds to the excitement. If there wasn't more, what would we have to look forward to?

Whale Watch Adventure

During Stephany's visit to Alaska, I decided that I needed to take her on at least one "touristy" attraction. Many of my friends and co-workers had gotten to see Southeast Alaska from the water, either by ferry or cruise ship, but I had yet to get out on a boat.

I decided that paying for the price of a whale watch would be worthwhile. I really wanted Stephany to get the most out of her trip, and I would also enjoy the chance to see Juneau and the Gastineau Channel from a different perspective.

I contacted of one of the local whale watch companies that had small vessels and good customer reviews, and made reservations. Even if we didn't see any whales, I was excited for the ride!

We set out from Auke Bay, and it didn't take long before we started seeing wildlife.

This sea lion found itself a nice resting spot:

Later, another one came close to the boat with an investigative nose up! 

Most of the whale watch was spent enjoying the incredible scenery. It would be the first and last time I got the chance to enjoy my surroundings from this perspective.

A close-up look at the Eagle Glacier:

The view on all sides of us was spectacular. The boat ride was worth it just for this.

At one point, I think I had to remind myself that we were there to look for whales.

 

At the start of our trip, we saw signs of whale activity, but they were too stubborn to give us much of a show.

 

That didn't mean there wasn't other wildlife to keep us entertained. 

 

This bald eagle put on a dramatic aerial display before swooping down to grab a fish. At one point, it went almost completely upside down as it scoped out its target. Of course, my camera was ready.

For a second, it almost looked like it was going for these boaters:



 That was one of the coolest things I've seen, before or since.

As if that wasn't a cool enough show, it wasn't long before we saw whales.

The most common whales in the area are humpbacks, but those who are lucky also have the chance to see orcas (killer whales). I was hoping for an orca sighting, but I knew the chances weren't great (the captain told us it had been a few days since they last saw one). Given those odds, we would be more than happy to just see humpbacks.

It took a little while, but we were finally rewarded with some whales. We spotted a baby humpback with its mother swimming along the surface together. Once we found them, it didn't take long before they put on a show.

Breaching baby humpback:

Pretty cool, eh? We were hoping the mother would join its calf in the breaching displays, but we had no such luck. Still, the show that the calf put on was good enough for us.

 

We continued watching the whales and their fascinating behavior for a while, until it was time to head back to port.

 

It was time and money well spent. The whales topped off an already awesome trip. Even though I was halfway through my summer, seeing Alaska from the water almost felt like I was experiencing it all for the first time. I was happy that Stephany could be a part of it, too.

 

I couldn't wait for whatever the rest of the summer had in store.