Glacier Bay National Park
Early this morning, the National Geographic Sea Lion cruised through the spectacular fjords of Glacier Bay National Park. We woke up to a foggy and drizzly morning cruising towards Johns Hopkins Glacier. Here we observed dozens of harbor seals resting on the ice surrounded by the glacially sculpted walls of a massive “U” shaped valley.
As we approached, the thunder of the glacier could be heard before we could see the ice breaking off the face and falling to the water. We did not have to wait too long before a big chunk of the glacier broke off from the face and fell, giving the impression of a slow motion film. After the huge splash we listened to the “white thunder.”
The following stop was at the face of Lamplugh Glacier. This glacier is no longer a tidewater glacier. One of its most amazing features is a waterfall that emerges from the glacier’s wall.
The day was foggy, but we could still scan the water and the shorelines of Russell Cut, Tidal Inlet and Gloomy Knob looking for wildlife. Rafts of thousands of surf scoters covered the water’s surface near Gloomy Knob. These sea ducks congregate in huge numbers around this area to feed on blue mussels, their main source of food.
We scanned the shorelines of Geikie Inlet. We had two brief sightings of bears which, according to their distant silhouettes, were most likely black bears.
On our way to Bartlett Cove, we stopped at a Steller sea lion haul out and sea bird breeding colony called South Marble Island. Common murres, tufted puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, and pelagic cormorants swarmed as they took off from the rock walls. As the National Geographic Sea Lion sailed away from the island, a raft of about 50 sea otters was encountered on the way.
After dinner, we spent some relaxing time at Bartlett Cove Lodge after a leg-stretching walk on a loop trail through Alaska’s temperate rain forest.
