Glacier Bay, Alaska
The snowy mountain slopes of the southern end of Glacier Bay greeted us as we awoke today. Early in the morning the ship had stopped to pick up our two guides from the Park Service who would be with us all day – Janine our Park Service ranger and Alice our Huna Tlingit native guide. They introduced themselves at breakfast, and right after that the beautiful scenery and wildlife began. Our first stop was at South Marble Island where a cacophony of sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks roared and tussled somewhat lazily by the shore. This small island hosted a plethora of wildlife and we were very excited to get our first glimpses of the wonderful and charismatic tufted puffins. These small birds, with their charming colorful beaks and plumes of feathers on their heads, sat on the grassy slopes at the top of the island or bobbed and swam in the waters near us. Other birds not previously encountered on this trip were seen as well – the penguin-like common murres sitting in tightly-clustered groups on rocks ledges, the pigeon guillemots with their black plumage and bright red legs, the smallest and loveliest of the gulls the elegant kittiwakes with their yellow bills and ink-dipped wingtips, and the most impressive of all migrating birds, the delicate arctic tern that flies all the way from here to Patagonia and back each year. Sea otters with their charming and charismatic faces made appearances as well floated in the water, their faces and feet both turned towards us briefly before disappearing under the surface.
Further into Glacier Bay, while scanning the rocky slopes that loomed above us, we saw our first mountain goats of the day. These shaggy and nimble-footed creatures looked like dots of snow on the mountains from a distance until legs and movement could be discerned. They ambled up and down the steep sided slopes with an ease and grace that was enviable. More were spotted further down the bay and one placid goat resting on a small grassy knoll was close enough to the shore that we were able to get quite close views with our slow approach. Then more goats appeared and even more as we moved further and further north into the bay until it seemed that we had found approximately 40 mountain goats in total just during the course of the morning!
Before lunch could be enjoyed a bear was sighted on the beach, so we all rushed out to admire a very large and dark brown bear with a pale snout slowly walking along the shore in search of food. Beautiful and calm it paid no attention to us as it continued on with its journey into the forest.
After lunch we came out on deck to admire the beautiful Margerie Glacier, as well as the dramatic and strange dark Grand Pacific Glacier at the north end of the east arm of Glacier Bay. These two glaciers right next to each other and very different in appearance fascinated all with the sheer quantity of ice and its strange formations, shapes and colors. We watched and waited, looking and listening for the moments when ice would calve off the face and crash with a resounding splash into the water. Some harbor seals were spotted resting on pieces of ice where they felt safe from predators. The Lamplough Glacier and Reed glaciers were further stops as we made our way back out and south towards the entrance of the park.
