Glacier Bay National Park
Grandfather Great Spirit fill us with light.
Give us the strength to understand, and the eyes to see.
Teach us to walk the soft earth as relatives to all that live.
- Sioux prayer
As the early morning stretch class concludes, we are left with a Sioux prayer to ponder as we commence the day. Set apart from the others, this day is spent in its entirety, cruising onboard the National Geographic Sea Lion while viewing the majestic landscape of Glacier Bay National Park. We take this opportunity to restore our spirits and explore our innermost being, in a variety ways: watching introspectively in silence or communing with friends, perhaps taking the opportunity to nourish the body with a wellness treatment, or exploring our creative nature through writing or painting.
Shortly after breakfast we arrive at South Marble Island. The now familiar roar of the Steller sea lions fills the air. Tufted puffins delight us with their fiery orange bills, equal in their intensity to the vibrantly colored crimson feet of the pigeon guillemots we spy at Gloomy Knob. A mountain goat rests on the mottled colored mountainside and the chatter of kittiwake gulls is rhythmically transcending. A brown bear overturns rocks on the beach as if completely for our entertainment.
After our mid- day meal we gather on deck to feast our eyes on the vastly different glaciers before us. The Margerie Glacier is pure white with shades of glacial blue; the crevasses create a column-like surface. In contrast, the Pacific Glacier is silty gray in color with a gravel-like surface.
Randy Thomas, our guest ranger, explains with deep conviction, his outstretched hand guiding our eyes in the direction of the two glaciers, “It has been taught to me by the native peoples never to point a finger at anything, for you will dishonor its spirit. Everything in nature has a spirit, the mountains, the waters; they are as alive as you and me.” Perhaps it is for this reason we are so readily healed when steeped in nature.
Our evening concludes with a magical nature walk through an unforgettably verdant forest, named by one of the guests as the “velvet forest”; her poetic description of this enchanted forest.
