Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Margerie Glacier’s wall of ice dominated our first experiences of the morning. Even if we were not quite up, the sounds of thunder and rifle-shot like cracks echoed outside. Two large calving events occurred before morning sunlight crept across towering pinnacles of ice. It is unusual for us to be this far into Glacier Bay in the morning, but we were able to pick up our National Park Service Ranger last night at 9:00 pm in order to get an early start. We now had the remainder of the day to explore our way out of the bay.
We next cruised into Johns Hopkins Inlet soon after breakfast. Rugged glacier-capped mountains etched their silhouettes against a bright blue sky. Here, scenery filled your peripheral vision with glacially-scoured and exposed rock. Every view seemed overflowing.
We began our search for wildlife across the bay at Russell Cut. While in the open water, we heard a fascinating discussion of mating strategies in butterflies by our Princeton guest lecturer, Professor Henry Horn. As the day progressed the temperature became quite warm, and the chances for finding bears seemed low. With their thick fur coats, bears were laying low in cool places. Much to our surprise, a large brown bear was found grazing near the intertidal zone. We watched it for about 15 minutes until it slowly made its way to the water. It didn’t stop. It walked right in, stood there a moment, and started swimming out across the cut. We had been very quiet on the Sea Lion, so the bear appeared to not be at all concerned about our presence. It methodically paddled toward the far shore, at least one half mile away. The photo above shows it nonchalantly looking our direction. Soon it reached the far side, got out, walked a few feet, shook off, and began to walk along the shore. After a few minutes it came to a big rock, stopped, stood up and scratched its back. He then continued his walk as we moved slowly off for more adventures. Not once did we change the bear’s behavior. We silently stood on the bow and obtained great entertainment by merely peering into its life for an hour. It was an intimate view. We watched it eat, go for a long swim, and have a good back scratch.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring islands and poking into the quiet waters of Tidal Inlet and Sandy Cove. Seabirds flew about or stood around on the rocks of Marble Island, as a large group of Northern sea lions loafed languidly and played pushing games. Our day at Glacier Bay ended at Bartlett Cove where some of us visited the lodge while others walked several of the trails nearby.
Margerie Glacier’s wall of ice dominated our first experiences of the morning. Even if we were not quite up, the sounds of thunder and rifle-shot like cracks echoed outside. Two large calving events occurred before morning sunlight crept across towering pinnacles of ice. It is unusual for us to be this far into Glacier Bay in the morning, but we were able to pick up our National Park Service Ranger last night at 9:00 pm in order to get an early start. We now had the remainder of the day to explore our way out of the bay.
We next cruised into Johns Hopkins Inlet soon after breakfast. Rugged glacier-capped mountains etched their silhouettes against a bright blue sky. Here, scenery filled your peripheral vision with glacially-scoured and exposed rock. Every view seemed overflowing.
We began our search for wildlife across the bay at Russell Cut. While in the open water, we heard a fascinating discussion of mating strategies in butterflies by our Princeton guest lecturer, Professor Henry Horn. As the day progressed the temperature became quite warm, and the chances for finding bears seemed low. With their thick fur coats, bears were laying low in cool places. Much to our surprise, a large brown bear was found grazing near the intertidal zone. We watched it for about 15 minutes until it slowly made its way to the water. It didn’t stop. It walked right in, stood there a moment, and started swimming out across the cut. We had been very quiet on the Sea Lion, so the bear appeared to not be at all concerned about our presence. It methodically paddled toward the far shore, at least one half mile away. The photo above shows it nonchalantly looking our direction. Soon it reached the far side, got out, walked a few feet, shook off, and began to walk along the shore. After a few minutes it came to a big rock, stopped, stood up and scratched its back. He then continued his walk as we moved slowly off for more adventures. Not once did we change the bear’s behavior. We silently stood on the bow and obtained great entertainment by merely peering into its life for an hour. It was an intimate view. We watched it eat, go for a long swim, and have a good back scratch.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring islands and poking into the quiet waters of Tidal Inlet and Sandy Cove. Seabirds flew about or stood around on the rocks of Marble Island, as a large group of Northern sea lions loafed languidly and played pushing games. Our day at Glacier Bay ended at Bartlett Cove where some of us visited the lodge while others walked several of the trails nearby.
