Glacier Bay National Park

A small patch of blue sky was the first hint that Glacier Bay was going to be a day to remember. We had cruised all night to find ourselves rounding Jaw Point at the mouth of Johns Hopkins Inlet first thing in the morning. As we turned the corner to face Johns Hopkins glacier, the sun overcame the grey clouds and blue sky opened up to reveal Mount Wilbur and Mount Orville framing the glacier’s face. Hundreds of harbor seals took advantage of the good weather to soak up sun on their individual tanning beds made of ice. The harbor seal population in Glacier Bay is declining, so all boat travel into Johns Hopkins was closed until July 1 to give this area maximum protection during the critical time when seals give birth to the next generation. Now that those seal pups have grown up a bit, we are able to join them in this most magical part of Glacier Bay.

Glacier Bay was created by President Calvin Coolidge in 1925 for the purpose of studying how plants colonize bare rock after an area is exposed by a retreating glacier. After a stop at Lamplugh Glacier and its cascading waterfall from the middle of the glacier’s face, we left the land of ice and rock and began tracing the route of plant succession down bay. We were well past the shrubs and into the trees when mountain goats began to reveal themselves on the granite face of Gloomy Knob. We set up the scope on the forward deck and everyone got a chance to see these shaggy white rock-climbers and learn how their hooves are specially made to help them stick to the rocks.

The scope got more use later in the afternoon when three wolves were sighted on the north side of Geikie Inlet. A lone black wolf appeared on the edge of the beach grass and was slowly working its way towards the creek when two additional sets of wolf ears emerged from the grass, as another black and a grayish wolf raised their heads, and eventually joined the stroll down the beach. Like the mountain goats, these wolves were very accommodating and stuck around until everyone had an excellent view. Ranger Janene thought they might be the same wolves she has seen in Hugh Miller Inlet, just to the north, on her kayak adventures to that part of the park.

The last bit of the wildlife came at South Marble Island where many of the guests become Glacier Bay Birders by adding black oystercatchers, horned and tufted puffins, pigeon guillemots, black-legged kittiwakes and common murres to their life lists. As for the clouds – they were still scarce when we docked for evening walks at Bartlett Cove.