Glacier Bay National Park
Sailing up Glacier Bay is a journey back in time. It’s a place to witness firsthand raw naked earth emerging from the abrasive powers of moving ice. Here we can see how the recently exposed land is colonized by new life and get a feel for the dynamism of geologic and biologic processes.
Park service ranger Sarah Betcher and cultural interpreter Alice Haldane came aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion to help us get a deeper understanding of the human and natural history of this 3.3- million-acre wilderness area, part of a 25-million-acre World Heritage Site stretching north into Canada.
Shortly after breakfast, the ship slowly approached South Marble Island, where Steller sea lions were hauled out for their morning snooze. Their belching and growling sounds were joined by the piercing call of black oystercatchers with carrot-orange colored bills. Tufted puffins, common murres, pigeon guillemots, and murrelets bobbed around on the gray, glassy sea at the edge of the island while glaucous-winged gulls and other gulls wheeled past the island’s cliffs.
A little farther into the bay, we approached steep cliffs peppered with old patches of snow. Upon closer inspection, we saw quite a few mountain goats including young kids perched on seemingly impossible places.
Continuing up the bay, we encountered our first bear of the day…a cinnamon-colored brown or grizzly. The name “brown” is a bit misleading in that this species can vary considerably in color from black to brown to nearly blond. This particular bear was on the move, climbing down a cliff to the beach, then up another dandelion-covered slope. It would stop and scratch at the ground or turn over rocks looking for anything edible.
After lunch, we reached the “dirty” Grand Pacific Glacier, tumbling down from Canada and its neighbor, beautiful blue and white Margerie Glacier, which has its origins in the Fairweather Range. All was quiet as we patiently waited and waited for a calving. Harbor seals, looking like giant slugs, were hauled out on small icebergs near the foot of Margerie. Just before needing to leave, Margerie awoke with the crack of White Thunder, and a towering wall of ice plunged into the sea.
On our way back to park headquarters in Bartlett Cove, a black bear (this one not a grizzly) was sighted walking along the shore. Cameras were out again in an attempt to capture memorable images of this wondrous place.
