Glacier Bay National Park
Early this morning the National Geographic Sea Lion was making her way north in Tarr Inlet. Our first stop in this large national park would be South Marble Island a small piece of rock, soil and few plants where thousands of sea birds come each summer to nest.
Glacier Bay became a National Monument in 1925. Fifty-five years later, President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act that created Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The preservation of 3.3 million acres of wilderness began with a quiet man from Minnesota who had come to what became Glacier Bay in the early 1900s. He found a wild land, undefiled, untamed, in the wake of glacial recession and decided that one man could make a difference and approached colleagues at the Ecological Society of America. Together, could this large piece of land be preserved for future generations? The answer was yes, and through the vigilance and tenacious work of many people we have the National Park we are visiting today, protected for many, many generations to come.
After being introduced to our two Glacier Bay naturalists, Helen Fields and Emily Mount, we all gathered on the bow to visit this well-known bird and Stellar Sea lion colony located approximately twenty miles north of the entrance to Glacier Bay National Park. After spending time with nervous Tufted puffins, singing Pigeon Guillemots, boisterous gulls and very territorial Oyster catchers, not to mention our second stop of our week-long trip with sea lions, we slowly pulled away from the noise of this densely populated, though tiny island.
Our vessel continued her cruise north making her way to our second stop of the day entering Sandy Cove searching for Black bears. This small inlet is well known for its bear residents, though today two other small vessels were anchored inside creating lots of activity. The inlet had many a bird in residence, but no bears.
TheNational Geographic Sea Lion then headed for Gloomy Knob, and the home of Glacier Bay’s mountain goats. On the limestone cliffs several goats were spotted. Due to very deep waters we were able to maneuver close to the cliff walls for looks at goats who were spending their morning fairly high on Gloomy Knob.
Back in the center of the channel we returned to our northbound heading, making our way into Russell Cut searching for brown bears. As if on cue, one of our naturalists spotted a bear enjoying his breakfast, on a beach just south of Grand Pacific and Marjorie Glaciers. Casually rolling over very large rocks, probably weighing over two hundred pounds this large bear was enjoying a morning meal of scraped off barnacles and mussels. Making his way north along the east side of Tarr Inlet, this brown bear was doing what bears all over Southeast Alaska do for food this time of year. They anxiously await the arrival of salmon to their spawning rivers, and, until those rivers fill with fish a bear has to find a meal! Along the shoreline foraging occurs and at the edge of the forest and in the meadows, brown bears fill up on vegetation, with one eye on a nearby salmon stream watching for the arrival of their summer food.
The National Geographic Sea Lion reluctantly pulled away from bear watching and continued her passage towards the head of Tarr Inlet. Though our sights were on the glaciers ahead, another large marine mammal was spotted. A killer whale was seen taking a breath while swimming north towards the same glaciers we were cruising towards. The sighting was made from the bridge of the National Geographic Sea Lion. Everyone on the bow scanned the waters and finally we saw the dorsal fin emerge and immediately both the natural history staff and the park rangers knew the whale. It was T-2, a well-known transient killer whale with a distinctly curved dorsal fin. We watched as this large animal dove, stayed under water for at least six minutes then surfaced, took several breaths and dove again. It was soon explained that this whale had been seen up bay for several years now, hunting for one of his favorite meals, harbor seals.
Timing is key when visiting Glacier Bay. We were in the largest National Park in North America traveling 65 miles up bay to the face of two tidewater glaciers. As late afternoon quickly approached, it was time to spend time with the ice faces of three very different glaciers. Grand Pacific Glacier with Ferris Glacier overriding its face sat directly in front of the National Geographic Sea Lion. To our left was Marjorie Glacier, a steady state tidal glacier, that is continuing its cycle of filling a hanging valley by dumping water and ice into Tarr Inlet. Marjorie Glacier is advancing about seven feet per day and is known for calving. As we approached, we could see a huge crack dead center in the face of Marjorie Glacier. Waiting patiently, we were rewarded with the visual feast of a massive piece of ice falling away from the two hundred foot high face!
The National Geographic Sea Lion pulled away slowly as many of us remained in the warm sun of the day taking in the enormity of our experience and the great expanse of land, around us, all protected for future generations who will follow us discovering again and again the beauty and uniqueness of Glacier Bay.
