Glacier Bay National Park
Tidal currents formed slicks of platinum-colored water adjacent to tidal rips of small choppy waves. Many 5000-foot mountain peaks reached up to just below the cloud level. We headed directly to the Marble Islands for a view of a concentration of park animals including horned and tufted puffins, common murres, black-legged kittiwakes, pelagic cormorants, and pigeon guillemots. These seabirds pick this noisy, crowded site because of the safety in numbers, plentiful potential mates and ideal locations for foraging. Northern Sea lions were draped upon the first rocks to come into view. Glaucous-winged gulls and other birds flew about this busy island.
We next cruised into Tidal Inlet, a short channel into the mainland. It often has wildlife, and today was no exception. A sow and 3 brown bear cubs foraged on a steep hillside. They slowly harvested bunches of red berries on what looked like a plant called buffalo berry. Each animal would manipulate a branch with one paw, close its mouth around the berries, pull its head back, and strip off the fruits. This repeated maneuver is easy to see from a distance, because the head reaches out and pulls back over and over. Each berry contains one seed. Researchers have counted these seeds within a bear’s droppings to determine how many berries they eat. They average about 20,000 berries per dropping at 10 every 24 hours, so they can eat a staggering 200,000 berries in one day! That’s the poop on bears.
Gloomy Knob is a mass of gray limestone several hundred feet high. Mountain goats are attracted here because of the safety and grazing this place offers. Today we found four nannies and their kids. These youngsters were born at the end of May, so are about 2 months old. Two were playing together, jumping and running up a little rock point. The weather was a bit gray but no rain meant it was easy to be outside.
Glaciers dominate the north end of the bay and are in about every direction you can point a camera. We had the good fortune to go up the Johns Hopkins Inlet to an area where numerous harbor seals were hauled out on the ice. Glaciers hung above us as we looked out onto the mile-wide terminus of the Johns Hopkins. The noise of cracking and tumbling ice made us search for where it would tumble next. The time in the presence of ice passed quickly, and soon we were heading back down the bay.
The clouds slowly lifted, and the tiny blue patch in the distance grew to cover the sky. The tops of peaks appeared and were covered with cottony mist. Soon the rest of the mountains shed their garments. How joyful it can be when it’s sunny! For a brief time Mt. Fairweather at 15,300 feet rose like a distant ghost hiding behind all the other tall peaks. Look at today’s photograph and see if you can find its summit.
Bartlett Cove is a multifaceted stop for the evening. Some of our guests walked to the lodge and the small museum the National Park Service maintains upstairs, while others hiked for exercise. A short loop trail leads along the forest edge, and then turns into the woods. This is an area that is experiencing isostatic rebound a process in which land once weighed down by glacial ice slowly rises. In this region it is lifting about an inch and a half per year. Tectonic activity is also adding to this uplift, bringing up new land from below sea level. Forests are now growing on places that not too long ago were growing clams. Plant succession can be experienced by merely walking into the forest. Soon we were all back aboard and on our way to new adventures.
Tidal currents formed slicks of platinum-colored water adjacent to tidal rips of small choppy waves. Many 5000-foot mountain peaks reached up to just below the cloud level. We headed directly to the Marble Islands for a view of a concentration of park animals including horned and tufted puffins, common murres, black-legged kittiwakes, pelagic cormorants, and pigeon guillemots. These seabirds pick this noisy, crowded site because of the safety in numbers, plentiful potential mates and ideal locations for foraging. Northern Sea lions were draped upon the first rocks to come into view. Glaucous-winged gulls and other birds flew about this busy island.
We next cruised into Tidal Inlet, a short channel into the mainland. It often has wildlife, and today was no exception. A sow and 3 brown bear cubs foraged on a steep hillside. They slowly harvested bunches of red berries on what looked like a plant called buffalo berry. Each animal would manipulate a branch with one paw, close its mouth around the berries, pull its head back, and strip off the fruits. This repeated maneuver is easy to see from a distance, because the head reaches out and pulls back over and over. Each berry contains one seed. Researchers have counted these seeds within a bear’s droppings to determine how many berries they eat. They average about 20,000 berries per dropping at 10 every 24 hours, so they can eat a staggering 200,000 berries in one day! That’s the poop on bears.
Gloomy Knob is a mass of gray limestone several hundred feet high. Mountain goats are attracted here because of the safety and grazing this place offers. Today we found four nannies and their kids. These youngsters were born at the end of May, so are about 2 months old. Two were playing together, jumping and running up a little rock point. The weather was a bit gray but no rain meant it was easy to be outside.
Glaciers dominate the north end of the bay and are in about every direction you can point a camera. We had the good fortune to go up the Johns Hopkins Inlet to an area where numerous harbor seals were hauled out on the ice. Glaciers hung above us as we looked out onto the mile-wide terminus of the Johns Hopkins. The noise of cracking and tumbling ice made us search for where it would tumble next. The time in the presence of ice passed quickly, and soon we were heading back down the bay.
The clouds slowly lifted, and the tiny blue patch in the distance grew to cover the sky. The tops of peaks appeared and were covered with cottony mist. Soon the rest of the mountains shed their garments. How joyful it can be when it’s sunny! For a brief time Mt. Fairweather at 15,300 feet rose like a distant ghost hiding behind all the other tall peaks. Look at today’s photograph and see if you can find its summit.
Bartlett Cove is a multifaceted stop for the evening. Some of our guests walked to the lodge and the small museum the National Park Service maintains upstairs, while others hiked for exercise. A short loop trail leads along the forest edge, and then turns into the woods. This is an area that is experiencing isostatic rebound a process in which land once weighed down by glacial ice slowly rises. In this region it is lifting about an inch and a half per year. Tectonic activity is also adding to this uplift, bringing up new land from below sea level. Forests are now growing on places that not too long ago were growing clams. Plant succession can be experienced by merely walking into the forest. Soon we were all back aboard and on our way to new adventures.
