Much of the appeal of Admiralty
Island National Monument is due to the fact that in
several of the major bays and inlets which penetrate deeply
inland, offer safe places to anchor and hike the adjacent
beaches or estuaries while hunting, beach combing or photographing
wildlife.
Sitka
black-tailed deer are numerous, especially during winter
and spring along these beach fringes. The largest inlet,
Seymour Canal, contains some of the highest densities
of nesting bald eagles anywhere in the world.
Other
bays show evidence of past logging activity or have
remnants of canneries, fox farms, and saltery sites
from the fishery boom era.
Admiralty
has high densities of Alaskan Brown Bear which travel
throughout the different drainages and visitors would
be wise to take proper precautions.
Seymour
Canal and other bays such as Mitchell, Hood, Chaik,
Whitewater, Pybus and Gambier contain marine mammals
such as harbor seals and porpoises, sea lions and occasionally
humpback whales.
Waterfowl
and seabirds over winter in these bays in abundance
and many of the tributary streams have strong runs of
salmon in the late summer and fall.
A
unique feature of Admiralty is the Cross Island Canoe
route which connects Mole Harbor in Seymour Canal to
Angoon. The route passes through as many as eight lakes
connected by maintained portage trails dating back to
the l930's.
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