The Original Landscape: Alaska's Inside Passage

From Alaska 2004

At the end of August 2004, Jason, my parents, and I journeyed to Juneau to experience what may prove to be, given the state of our environment, a once in a lifetime glimpse at America's last wilderness. We discovered a seemingly untouched landscape, so verdant and pure that one almost forgets the lengthy list of mercury-contaminated fish, litter cluttering our sidewalks, and exhaust choking our skies. Alaska is a place of natural beauty that astonishes at every turn - from young island mountains exploding from the glassy green seas, to the rush and roar of tidal glaciers calving and melting, to towering cedars sternly guarding primeval forests thickly blanketed in ferns, to wind-sculpted aquamarine icebergs that only hint at their great depths below the water's surface.

As amazing as the landscape is the wildlife of Alaska. To see that great glossy black of the humpback whale arch, and that wide tail cascading water in sheaves, is to enjoy a state of grace, if only momentarily. The soaring white and black pattern of an orca's underbelly, the antics of a hundred sea lions, the pure Darwinian madness of silver salmon rushing to spawn and die (hopefully in that order), the majestic flight of a bald eagle to its aerie outpost, and the coy stretch of a speckled harbor seal, looking for that stray bit of sun before swimming for its dinner - these are scenes that only Alaska's Inside Passage has performed for me.

And the last people to have truly known and loved this land are here too - the Tlingkit, the Inuit, the Aleut. They have steadfastly held on to their wisdom, their ancient arts, and even some of their practices to the benefit of this state. Perhaps this is projection, or even just wishful thinking, but I felt that the native peoples of Southeastern Alaska know the secrets of those dark and teeming waters and they are the last, best hope for this arctic paradise.

See our pictures of this amazing place - you can almost taste the clean air.