Pi Island, again

I certainly haven't been to all the islands near Palmer that we're allowed to land on and walk around. But I've been out in rec boats enough now to have made repeat visits to a couple of them. One nice return visit was to Pi Island, on kind of a gloomy day when we didn't want to go too far out in case it started pouring rain.

On the way we stopped and said hello to some seals. (As promised before, I am terrible at ID-ing and am not sure if these are crabeaters but I think they are.)

It was lovely to see, again, the striking olivine deposits in the rock of Pi Island, made even more vibrant green by the drizzling rain.

Since my first visit a couple months ago, the ice has melted so much more that this time we could get around the whole island, and did.

One of the krill researchers even found a dead krill on the rocky beach.

A bunch of elephant seals (a bit easier for me to ID than the others) were hanging out and putting on a show for us.

And this time we even climbed up onto the glacial remnant that tops Pi Island. Not sure how many years any of this ice will remain, so have to enjoy it while we can.

All of it! Oh, Antarctica....

Pi Island

Another magical island visit, this time to Pi Island (USGS name is Detrich Island), a rocky mount that first began poking out from the steady retreat of the glacier that covers Anvers Island on 3/14/14--hence the local name of Pi Island. It still has an ice cap covering most of it, but circumnavigating the edges was a perfect evening's entertainment.

I loved all of the olivine veins prevalent in the rocks here.

And the ice cap still covering the island hangs along its sides in beautiful, dramatic ways.

Excellent icicle farm!

We weren't the only ones who found Pi Island to be a lovely place to hang out that evening, either. Elephant Seal pups were enjoying the calm and quiet of this little spot as well.