Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Welcome to the bay of new beginnings, where glaciers ebb and flow like fingers of a grand tide set to an equally grand metronome. One century they march down from their mountains to bury an entire bay, another century they retreat back to unveil things anew – a land reborn – to carve and shape all they touch, including us. How can we escape the influence of ice? We cannot, thank goodness. Ice is magical, luminous, ancient and inspirational; it’s the handiwork of the natural world speaking of processes long continued.
We arrived at Bartlett Cove at 6 am, picked up Park Ranger Emily Mount and Cultural Interpreter Faith Grant, and headed north into the Ice Age. At South Marble Island, in the lower heart of the bay, we glided slowly past the cliff nests of puffins and gulls, their chattering calls a musical introduction to our day. Ahead, we left behind the cloudy skies and slipped into sunshine that danced off the snowy flanks of the Fairweather Range, among the highest coastal mountains in the world, crowned by Mount Fairweather at 15,320 feet above the sea (only eight miles from the coast). Off Gloomy Knob we sighted mother mountain goats with their nimble-footed kids.
After lunch, we spent an hour at the 21-mile-long Margerie Glacier, its tidewater terminus a blue-white wall of ice 250 feet high and a mile across, fractured by crevasses into tall towers called seracs. The sun massaged us while the decks fell silent and nobody said a word. When asked to describe the moment in one word, guests said, “Awesome,” “Golden,” “Perfect,” “Peaceful,” “Reverent,” and “Mind-boggling.” Said another, “How often do you get to sunbathe in the company of a glacier?”
En route back down the bay we saw another coastal brown bear to add to the one we’d seen earlier, this one much closer as it walked along the shore, a living symbol of the Alaska we love: powerful, wild, timeless and unpredictable.
After dinner, we docked in Bartlett Cove and enjoyed evening walks through the woods, plus a nice visit to Glacier Bay Lodge. The end of a great day.
