Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve
While most of us were dreaming of whales, bears, and puffins, the National Geographic Sea Bird crossed into Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve just minutes after midnight on Friday, August 17, taking full advantage of our 24 hours in the park. But it wasn’t until the sound of ice sliding down the side of the hull that woke many of us to a view of Johns Hopkins Glacier that we knew we were in the park. From our glacier view at Jaw Point, we marveled at hanging glaciers and icebergs, discussed the nuanced differences between Kittlitz’s and marbled murrelets and contemplated just how far away we were from the face of Johns Hopkins Glacier…about five miles.
The night before we stopped by the new community dock at Gustavus to pick up National Park Service Ranger Marylou Blakeslee and cultural interpreter Alice Haldane from the Tlingit village of Hoonah so they could join our expedition into Glacier Bay and share with us their many stories. And those stories started just after breakfast when on our way to Margerie Glacier, four coastal brown bears—a sow and three cubs—drew everyone outside for the first bears of the trip. The light color of two of the cubs really made them stand out against the darker rocky coastline exposed by low tide. But the third cub was a deep chocolate color that blended in well as all four bears foraged their way through the rocky inter-tidal looking for morsels of nourishment under the many rocks they were turning over.
When we settled off the face of Margerie Glacier, it didn’t take long before the crowd on deck was celebrating falling ice and loud booms as the glacier put on a very nice calving show with only the Sea Bird in audience. As we looked up the Grand Pacific Glacier to the right of Margerie, it appeared like our neighbors in Canada were going to have a great day as the sun came out and the higher peaks became visible against the blue sky. We toasted their good weather fortune with hot apple cider as we knew the blue sky wasn’t going to follow us today as we made our way down-bay under more typical Southeast Alaska skies.
But leaving the sun behind us didn’t diminish the excitement or enthusiasm on board. Bears and calving glaciers were soon topped when our lunch ended just in time to watch one of Glacier Bay’s black wolves work its along the rocky beach, sniffing curiously at mysterious scents, squatting to leave a scent or two of its own, and disappearing like the fog in and out of the beach fringe vegetation. Seeing a wolf at Glacier Bay is truly a rare treat. And then it was goats.
The first goat was right off the bow and it seemed to be defying gravity as it started to work its way down the cliff to the enjoyment of everyone on board with room left on their camera’s memory cards. The spotting scope gave really close looks as Gloomy Knob lived up to its reputation as THE place to see goats in Southeast Alaska. And for those guests interested in our avian friends, rafts of hundreds of surf and white-winged scoters added to the great wildlife we saw today.
As we toured through Sandy Cove and made our way to South Marble Island for another visit with Steller sea lions, the grey day added a bit of rain. But the tufted puffins, common murres, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorants, and the lone black oystercatcher didn’t seem to mind a bit. And neither did anyone else. It was a great end to an awesome day.
