Thomas Bay and Cascade Creek

Thomas Bay is across Frederick Sound from Petersburg. It is home to another glacier that has retreated from the water's edge. We anchored off Ruth Island, near a U.S. Forest Service maintained trail along Cascade Creek.

The torrent of water eventually roared over a falls and out into the bay. The trail followed along the creek, high above a gorge and through a beautiful forest.

Devil's Club (right, notice the spiky thorns)

Fiddleheads (emerging fern shoots)

Skunk Cabbage tall enough to take a bite

The trail had some challenges and rewards, like the long complicated song of this Winter Wren.

The Bay was full of surprises:

These are Arctic Terns on their 12,000 mile migration from their summer home in the Antarctic to their breeding grounds in the Arctic tundra. (More pictures on the Natural History page of this website.)