Red Bluff Bay, Saginaw Bay & Pybus Bay

After a long night’s travel south, along Chatham Strait to the eastern side of Baranof Island, we entered Red Bluff Bay. Few ships can enter the narrow waterway. Inside, to our surprise, was a narrow bay, with high cliffs, some covered with temperate forest vegetation. Slowly we wended our way in, and saw the magnificent waterfalls, small and large, as well as a brown bear at the end of this body of water.

On we traveled, across Chatham Strait to the island of Kuiu, where we had a chance to kayak and walk along the long beach, closed off with cliffs and a seriously tight forest. Numerous fossils were there for us to admire. The area is limestone, of the latter half of the Permian period, with an age of between 260 and 300 million years! Corals, worm casts and brachiopods, as well as fusulinids (foraminifera, of about one centimeter).

Our next point of visit was the bay of Pybus, on the island of Admiralty. This island has the highest concentration of bears in the world (about one bear per square mile)! We chose this area for a delicious dinner of seared scallops with puttanesca, as we enjoyed the view.