(Aboard STROBE Boats — Exploring the Edge Where Land Breathes Sea)
As you trace the coastline aboard STROBE, the forest seems to spill right into the water — moss-draped spruce leaning toward the tide, waterfalls threading through ancient rock. This is the Tongass Rainforest, one of the last great temperate rainforests on Earth, nourished by over 130 inches of rain each year.
The air itself feels different here — charged, soft, almost sacred.
The Quiet Builders: Soil, Rain, and Renewal
Everything in Sitka’s forest is part of a cycle of transformation. Fallen trees become nurse logs, feeding new life; salmon return from the ocean, bringing nutrients back into the soil; rain carries minerals from mountain to sea and back again.
Your guide will show you how this seamless exchange connects every part of Sitka’s ecosystem — how the forest, ocean, and wildlife depend on one another in elegant balance.
Look for:
- Lush “nurse logs” sprouting young hemlock and spruce
- Ferns growing straight from moss-covered trunks
- The flash of salmon in clear coastal streams
Where the Wild Still Reigns
From the water, you may glimpse Sitka’s brown bears fishing at the mouth of a river or a coastal wolf padding along the tideline. Encounters here are not performances — they are privileges. STROBE’s captains maintain a deep respect for wildlife, keeping safe and ethical distances while allowing guests to quietly observe life as it unfolds naturally.
Each sighting is a reminder: in Sitka, you’re a visitor in a living world, not an audience to it.
