We had just neared Marble Island in the southern part of Glacier Bay National Park. We had been primed by the Park naturalist for a spectacular day and it had begun well. A dozen tufted puffins buzzed around the island like huge exotic bumblebees, mixing in with hundreds of black-legged kittiwakes, scores of glaucous-winged gulls, and a few black oystercatchers, bald eagles, pelagic cormorants and horned puffins. Yes, horned puffins, a bird very rarely seen in the lower 48 and a real treat to the keen birdwatchers on board.
As we circled the small island in our trusty, comfortable ship, the Sea Bird, a mass of brown, grunting, heaving bodies came into view: Steller sea lions. About 150 lay sprawled on the rocks, mostly young males, the rest elsewhere giving birth at this time of year.
More cries from the alert guestwhere the immense Grand Pacific Glacier exits from Canada into the ocean. Everybody stood alert on the bow with binoculars scanning the cliffs and bushy slopes for brown bear and mountain goat.
It was not long before we saw both. A family of goats including at least two kids was stretched out in the soft sun looking at a spectacular view filled with soaring snowy peaks, descending glaciers and patches of young forest. We could only imagine what it might be like here in winter for the goats with avalanches, shortage of food and horrendous storms threatening their survival.
Then we came upon a brown (grizzly) bear that was in the intertidal area wrestling with large boulders. Our ship slowly approached until we could see that it was eating barnacles and mussels, shell and all. Some roughage in that diet! It was one of eight we saw today.
As we continued north lumps of ice became more frequent in the water; they bumped and tinkled on our hull. Soon we were in Tarr Inlet with the beautiful Margerie Glacier coming into view around the corner. Kittiwakes skimmed back and forth in front of the 250-foot wall of turquoise and white ice that stretched back about 16 miles to the height of land. Everybody watched expectantly hoping for a piece of ice to calve off the glacier. Then, as if in slow motion, a pillar of ice toppled off and crashed silently into the ocean. In three seconds we heard a roar like thunder and a couple of minutes later the ship rocked in the swells. Guests from as far away as Florida, Britain and Ontario gave a cheer almost loud enough to shake off another piece. We returned south, well contented.
