Glacier Bay National Park
Large swaths of wild land support healthy populations of wild creatures. In North America, there is no wild area of greater size than the combined acreage of Glacier Bay National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Canada’s Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park and Kluane National Park Reserve. This 24 million-acre World Heritage Site was established in 1992, protecting a vastness of glaciated mountains, alpine tundra, virtually untouched watersheds and coastal shoreline. We witnessed the robust health of this ecosystem today, as keen eyes scanned and found every wild creature we could have hoped to see.
Very early risers caught a look at the moose that’s taken up residence near Glacier Bay Park Headquarters in Bartlett Cove. She ambled slowly, browsing the alders that grow where the forest meets the beach. Once NPS Ranger Mary Lou Blakeslee was aboard, we scooted off the dock, and began our journey “upbay.” Sea otters swam ahead of us in Sitakady Narrows before we made a sharp turn to starboard and slowly approached a black bear walking the beach on Strawberry Island. Our next stop was at the seabird nesting colony of South Marble Island, where we had great close-up looks at both tufted and horned puffins, as well as a growling mass of Steller sea lions hauled out on the rocks.
Then the calls for wildlife on shore began and seemed not to stop for much of the day. First there was the beautiful brown bear near Tlingit Point, ambling above the high tide line. Next we climbed the stairs again, emerging in pale sunshine to watch a pod of killer whales swim slowly by. The tall dorsal fins of the adult males in the group breaking the water’s surface long before the rest of the body. As we lounged on the bow benches on our approach to Gloomy Knob, binoculars were suddenly raised to squinted eyes. We’d spotted several mountain goat nannies with their frolicsome kids in tow, traversing impossibly steep marble walls. Shortly before lunch, the call came again, this time for a mother brown bear with her two very young cubs. We watched silently from deck as she used her powerful forearms to turn over countless boulders in search of tasty crabs and fishes.
Finally, we reached the head of the bay, and the enormous blueness of Margerie Glacier. Our attention was divided between the glacier to the left and another pair of brown bears to the right. Mary Lou even pointed out a large bald eagle's nest with what appeared to be part of a mountain goat kid draped over the edge. We spent the remainder of the afternoon basking in occasional sunshine and contemplating the immensity of the wildness around us until we were called forward one more time to watch a lone moose on the beach. Bright sunshine until 10:00 p.m. lit our late evening walks back at Bartlett Cove, where we stretched our legs before drifting off into sweet dreams of wild Alaska.
Large swaths of wild land support healthy populations of wild creatures. In North America, there is no wild area of greater size than the combined acreage of Glacier Bay National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Canada’s Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park and Kluane National Park Reserve. This 24 million-acre World Heritage Site was established in 1992, protecting a vastness of glaciated mountains, alpine tundra, virtually untouched watersheds and coastal shoreline. We witnessed the robust health of this ecosystem today, as keen eyes scanned and found every wild creature we could have hoped to see.
Very early risers caught a look at the moose that’s taken up residence near Glacier Bay Park Headquarters in Bartlett Cove. She ambled slowly, browsing the alders that grow where the forest meets the beach. Once NPS Ranger Mary Lou Blakeslee was aboard, we scooted off the dock, and began our journey “upbay.” Sea otters swam ahead of us in Sitakady Narrows before we made a sharp turn to starboard and slowly approached a black bear walking the beach on Strawberry Island. Our next stop was at the seabird nesting colony of South Marble Island, where we had great close-up looks at both tufted and horned puffins, as well as a growling mass of Steller sea lions hauled out on the rocks.
Then the calls for wildlife on shore began and seemed not to stop for much of the day. First there was the beautiful brown bear near Tlingit Point, ambling above the high tide line. Next we climbed the stairs again, emerging in pale sunshine to watch a pod of killer whales swim slowly by. The tall dorsal fins of the adult males in the group breaking the water’s surface long before the rest of the body. As we lounged on the bow benches on our approach to Gloomy Knob, binoculars were suddenly raised to squinted eyes. We’d spotted several mountain goat nannies with their frolicsome kids in tow, traversing impossibly steep marble walls. Shortly before lunch, the call came again, this time for a mother brown bear with her two very young cubs. We watched silently from deck as she used her powerful forearms to turn over countless boulders in search of tasty crabs and fishes.
Finally, we reached the head of the bay, and the enormous blueness of Margerie Glacier. Our attention was divided between the glacier to the left and another pair of brown bears to the right. Mary Lou even pointed out a large bald eagle's nest with what appeared to be part of a mountain goat kid draped over the edge. We spent the remainder of the afternoon basking in occasional sunshine and contemplating the immensity of the wildness around us until we were called forward one more time to watch a lone moose on the beach. Bright sunshine until 10:00 p.m. lit our late evening walks back at Bartlett Cove, where we stretched our legs before drifting off into sweet dreams of wild Alaska.
