Glacier Bay National Park
The sun came out today after several days of typical Southeast Alaska weather. The few clouds in the sky created a silvery look on Glacier Bay during the morning. After breakfast, we stopped at South Marble Island to look at the incredible marine wildlife. First, we watched the Steller sea lions lying on the rocks and playing in the water. Then, we admired the colorful tufted puffins flying and sitting in the water, as well as hundreds of black-legged kittiwakes on the cliffs above.
Our home for the week, National Geographic Sea Lion, cruised up the bay during the morning. We stopped to admire Tidal Inlet, where part of a mountain perched on the side of the mountain range is ready to create a landslide. We stopped at Gloomy Knob to watch several mountain goats walking and sitting on the limestone rocks. All of us were surprised by the appearance of a mother brown bear and her three small cubs scavenging along the intertidal zone. Hundreds of photographs were taken of both species during the same magical interlude.
In the channel called Russell Cut, the ship stopped so we could observe another brown bear. Then, we looked to the right and saw a gray wolf. Most of us have never seen a wolf, so we had to tear our eyes away from the nearby bear to admire the beautiful dark creature as it moved across the rocky delta.
After lunch, National Geographic Sea Lion cruised into Tarr Inlet at the northernmost end of Glacier Bay. We saw the huge Grand Pacific Glacier at the end of the bay, with dark medial moraines stretching up into the Canadian mountains. However, it was the brilliant white Margerie Glacier that stole the show. This 200-foot high glacier face had white serracs and blue crevasses. Suddenly, a loud thunder noise occurred and a large calving event resulted in a lot of ice tumbling in to the fjord.
We spent the rest of the afternoon cruising down the sixty-mile length of Glacier Bay, keeping in mind the awesome story of the entire bay emptying out of ice during the 19th century. We had an opportunity to hear from Alice Haldane about the Hoonah native culture here in Sit eeti Gheeyi, the Tlinget name for Glacier Bay meaning “the bay in place of the glacier”. The warm sunshine and lack of wind resulted in most of us sitting and lounging on the sun deck.
After dinner, we docked at Bartlett Cove for a chance to stretch our legs. Most of us walked around the trail and board walk around the terminal moraine, with some of us hiking up to the “fossil” tree stumps left over from the last glacial advance. The big surprise was seeing the moose in the kettle pond. Many of us spent some time in the Visitor Center. After a gorgeous sunset, we returned to the ship after such an exciting day.
