Apologies for the lull this month, but I have been staying in some places with shaky or non-existent internet.  And a head’s up to Verizon users; your phone will have no “G’s” on Prince of Wales Island.  😉  So let us play catch-up.

Of all the awesome wildlife that calls Alaska home, one species has remained elusive through two and half summers.  Then two weeks ago, right in the middle of Ketchikan, I finally saw them.  A pod of orcas moving north through the Tongass Narrows.

Many may know them as killer whales, but I like the name orca better, mostly because they are not whales, but porpoises.  I find it amusing that after a thousand miles racked up by ferry and an all-day tour of Glacier Bay, I didn’t catch a glimpse of one single orca until I came to one of the largest cities in the region.  The hill slope in the background is a taxiway for the airport in Ketchikan and the small ferry that takes people there docks just the the right of this image.  Just goes to show that in a place like Alaska, you don’t always have to be way out in the wilderness to see some of the coolest animals on the planet.