Glacier Bay, finest of Southeast Alaska, epitome of the Northwest Coast
Glacier Bay, of exalted repute, lived up to our greatest expectations. Before breakfast, we passed by Kidney Island. To our astonishment, we saw a brown bear ambling along the shore! Bears follow a distributional pattern in Glacier Bay, with blacks common in the wooded Lower Bay, and browns in the more open Upper. What was this bear doing here? Upon closer approach, we realized that this was, in fact, a brown-colored black bear. The pattern proved true, but the color was bizarre! While “black” bears can be many colors, almost every black bear on the Northwest Coast is black as jet. One anomaly replaced another.
Avian delights soon followed. At South Marble Island, we had fine views of the pigeon guillemot and its coral-red feet and of the sleek murre, decked with elegant restrain in black and white. We heard the nasal eponymous cries of wheeling kittiwakes, and the roaring and caterwauling of sea lions. But everyone’s favorite was the puffin. With clown-colored, parrot-like bills, tangerine feet, and kooky, shagged-out white eyebrows, these birds are hard not to love.
By middle morning, we were in open country. As habitat suggested, our next bear was a brown. This little bear had a broad face, wooly ears, and a yummy milk chocolate color - the prefect Teddy Bear. This T. was wild as well as wooly. He scrambled up a steep cliff and bashed through alder thicket before circling back to the beach. Then, with one puzzled and baleful look at us, he disappeared into the brush.
Pulling into Tidal Inlet, we found a moose. Though abundant in Glacier Bay, moose are shy and very difficult to spot. Glacier Bay has been an excellent habitat for moose since the 1800’s, but they found the place only recently: the first moose was seen in Glacier Bay in 1967. This moose stuck to the shoreline even when we approached, and with ears generally hard aft, he seemed rather ambivalent about his situation. And no wonder, we saw him favoring a hind leg, the result of a recent injury. His slightly damp look and a radio report of wolves sighted that morning on the opposite shore suggested a story: perhaps the moose had stumbled in wild flight from the wolves and had saved itself only by a chilly swim.
Recent passage of glacial ice has sculpted Gloomy Knob, a set of cliffs still mostly free of vegetation. Here, “alpine” conditions extend right down to sea level, so it is a great place to look for mountain goats. We found many goats, including a nanny and her tiny kid almost at eye level.
At Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers, we heard the crack and rumble of calving ice, called “white thunder” by the Tlingits. We saw a raging torrent of frigid meltwater gushing from a cavern in the ice, and Sea Bird-sized boulders riding seaward on frozen conveyor belts.
Not far from the ice, we found two more bears. These were big burly creatures, both the color of California. First separated by a stream and some hundreds of yards, the bigger of the bears headed for the smaller. Bears are not always glad to see one another, and we waited in some suspense, but these bears seemed perfectly comfortable in each other’s company. Though breeding season is high summer, these bears were likely “getting to know you.”
Our last bear was found in Geike Inlet, in the Lower Bay. As expected, it was black. And this was a proper Northwest Coast black bear, with the color and sheen of ebony. Despite their salmon-swatting stereotype, bears are mostly vegetarian. This formidable predator walked the shore nibbling salmonberry flowers and willow shoots like any deer.
Delayed by so many great wildlife sightings, we had time only for a quick dash around the forest loop trail at Bartlett Cove. We heard the patter of rain on huckleberry leaves and the fluty trills of thrushes in a forest that was sub-glacial terrain in Vancouver’s day.
Superb scenery, incomparable wildlife and interesting human history – one could “tour Alaska” for weeks and never leave the park! How lucky we are to have Glacier Bay!
Glacier Bay, of exalted repute, lived up to our greatest expectations. Before breakfast, we passed by Kidney Island. To our astonishment, we saw a brown bear ambling along the shore! Bears follow a distributional pattern in Glacier Bay, with blacks common in the wooded Lower Bay, and browns in the more open Upper. What was this bear doing here? Upon closer approach, we realized that this was, in fact, a brown-colored black bear. The pattern proved true, but the color was bizarre! While “black” bears can be many colors, almost every black bear on the Northwest Coast is black as jet. One anomaly replaced another.
Avian delights soon followed. At South Marble Island, we had fine views of the pigeon guillemot and its coral-red feet and of the sleek murre, decked with elegant restrain in black and white. We heard the nasal eponymous cries of wheeling kittiwakes, and the roaring and caterwauling of sea lions. But everyone’s favorite was the puffin. With clown-colored, parrot-like bills, tangerine feet, and kooky, shagged-out white eyebrows, these birds are hard not to love.
By middle morning, we were in open country. As habitat suggested, our next bear was a brown. This little bear had a broad face, wooly ears, and a yummy milk chocolate color - the prefect Teddy Bear. This T. was wild as well as wooly. He scrambled up a steep cliff and bashed through alder thicket before circling back to the beach. Then, with one puzzled and baleful look at us, he disappeared into the brush.
Pulling into Tidal Inlet, we found a moose. Though abundant in Glacier Bay, moose are shy and very difficult to spot. Glacier Bay has been an excellent habitat for moose since the 1800’s, but they found the place only recently: the first moose was seen in Glacier Bay in 1967. This moose stuck to the shoreline even when we approached, and with ears generally hard aft, he seemed rather ambivalent about his situation. And no wonder, we saw him favoring a hind leg, the result of a recent injury. His slightly damp look and a radio report of wolves sighted that morning on the opposite shore suggested a story: perhaps the moose had stumbled in wild flight from the wolves and had saved itself only by a chilly swim.
Recent passage of glacial ice has sculpted Gloomy Knob, a set of cliffs still mostly free of vegetation. Here, “alpine” conditions extend right down to sea level, so it is a great place to look for mountain goats. We found many goats, including a nanny and her tiny kid almost at eye level.
At Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers, we heard the crack and rumble of calving ice, called “white thunder” by the Tlingits. We saw a raging torrent of frigid meltwater gushing from a cavern in the ice, and Sea Bird-sized boulders riding seaward on frozen conveyor belts.
Not far from the ice, we found two more bears. These were big burly creatures, both the color of California. First separated by a stream and some hundreds of yards, the bigger of the bears headed for the smaller. Bears are not always glad to see one another, and we waited in some suspense, but these bears seemed perfectly comfortable in each other’s company. Though breeding season is high summer, these bears were likely “getting to know you.”
Our last bear was found in Geike Inlet, in the Lower Bay. As expected, it was black. And this was a proper Northwest Coast black bear, with the color and sheen of ebony. Despite their salmon-swatting stereotype, bears are mostly vegetarian. This formidable predator walked the shore nibbling salmonberry flowers and willow shoots like any deer.
Delayed by so many great wildlife sightings, we had time only for a quick dash around the forest loop trail at Bartlett Cove. We heard the patter of rain on huckleberry leaves and the fluty trills of thrushes in a forest that was sub-glacial terrain in Vancouver’s day.
Superb scenery, incomparable wildlife and interesting human history – one could “tour Alaska” for weeks and never leave the park! How lucky we are to have Glacier Bay!
