When dawn broke on National Geographic Quest, she found herself deep amongst the towering peaks and narrow fjords of Glacier Bay National Park. The early morning light brought us to Johns Hopkins Glacier, which stood steadfast with brilliant blue streaks of compact ice illuminated by the soft light of a moody Alaska day. We sailed back down the inlet, observing bears at Russell Cut, mountain goats at Gloomy Knob, and the diverse species that call South Marble Island home. Evening brought us to Bartlett Cove, headquarters of GBNP. We docked and took a stroll through towering Sitka spruce forests while birds chirped overhead, and the sounds of humpback whale spouts echoed across the cove. What a magical day indeed at southeast Alaska’s crown jewel, Glacier Bay National Park.
7/30/2022
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National Geographic Quest
Glacier Bay National Park, South Marble Island, and Bartlett Cove
It is not often that you get the chance to explore a landscape that is changing in front of your eyes. On board National Geographic Quest today, we took that rare opportunity while sailing through Glacier Bay National Park, a living laboratory of change in the wake of glacial recession. Just two hundred years ago, a 60+ mile glacier blanketed the bay in hundreds of feet of ice. In the time since, the glacier has dramatically receded, and a huge diversity of life has followed in its path. We spent the entire day searching for, and finding, that life. We began the morning at the face of Margerie and the Grand Pacific Glaciers at the northern end of the park along the Canadian border. While silently observing the glaciers, we were lucky to see a calving event. We even spotted a group of otters hauled out on one of the icebergs at the base of the ice, a rare behavior for this marine mammal. From there, we made our way south. We sailed past a huge array of seabirds, including tufted puffins, before spotting two brown bears, one foraging in the intertidal zone and another scaling the steep rock face of Gloomy Knob. High above, near the top of the ridgeline, mountain goats rested among the young Sitka spruce and Sitka alder that have colonized the freshly exposed earth. The last wildlife hotspot of the day, South Marble Island, provided sights (and sounds) of Steller sea lions and hundreds of different nesting seabirds. We ended our day with walks at Bartlett Cove, the entrance to the bay and the region of the park that has been uncovered from glacial ice the longest. The old growth forests we found here capped our exploration of change in the wake of glacial recession and showcased the incredible power of nature to thrive. Photo caption and photographer: The Fairweather Mountains peek out through the clouds with Margerie Glacier in the foreground. Photo by Alex Krowiak
