Glacier Bay National Park
Early this morning National Geographic Sea Bird entered Glacier Bay National Park and proceeded to Park Headquarters in Bartlett Cove. Janine, Sonia, and Faith embarked at 6:00 a.m. to spend the day with us.
We commenced our voyage up-bay – back in time toward the glaciers and a younger environment. Ranger/Naturalist Janine narrated the story of the dramatic historic recession of the glaciers that revealed the landscape we see today. Ranger Sonia joined us to give the young people on board greater insight and appreciation of Glacier Bay. She kept them busy with projects and activities applicable for this magnificent place. And Faith, from the Huna Totem Corporation, related stories of her Tlingit ancestral homeland, which is now known as Glacier Bay.
One of our young guests shared her experience of our day in Glacier Bay National Park:
The sun shone through the part of the window that wasn’t covered. I pulled myself out of bed and rolled up the shade. I had expected to see the dock that I had seen earlier but instead I saw that we were moving. I didn’t see my mom in the room so I slipped my feet into my Uggs. I went downstairs and into the dining room. I made my plate with cantaloupe and bacon. After we ate we learned that we were going to Glacier Bay. Everyone then went to the lounge and that’s when we met all the rangers. One of them asked us to hold up signs for her when she did her presentation. Everyone went to the bow of the boat where we held up the signs for her. We held up pictures of birds and she told everyone what they were.
Then a little island came into view. It had a lot of birds and sea lions on it. It was called South Marble Island. The island didn’t have much vegetation.
Four hours later we went to a place that was beautiful, breathtaking and extravagant. It’s hard to believe what beauty there was here. We saw a grizzly bear, which was cool. It was on the beach right below one of the mountains. He was very close to the water which was a blue-green color. It was perfect. Everything was. I never thought about what Alaska would be like. I thought about our vacation house in Minnesota. It’s beautiful there but this is a different kind of beauty. The air here is pure, cold, and sharp. I love it. We’ve seen everything today. Playing games, doing scavenger hunts, swimming in the sea and watching calving glaciers. We’ve seen it all here in Alaska.
— Sam Parker, age 10
It was a lucky day, with sunshine and the peaks of the high Fairweather Mountains warming us inside and out. We traveled into the heart of a wild place and learned some of its history, culture, biology and geology. The wildlife and the glaciers gave us lasting memories and our own stories to tell. It may not be so easy to explain our visit here; Glacier Bay needs to be experienced in person to start to capture its grandeur.
