Glacier Bay

At 0600 hours we had an early wakeup call: a short distance ahead of the ship, brown bears were feeding on a whale carcass! There were five bears close by. As we watched, two or three bears at a time tore at the huge, white carcass. Another bear napped in grass above the tidal zone, while a fifth bear went for a swim after its meal. They were obviously well fed; the bellies on some of these bears looked huge.

We awoke more than halfway up Glacier Bay. Our next stop was at the Grand Pacific Glacier, which nearly filled the bay 200 years ago. Its front is so dark with rocky material that it is hardly looks like a glacier now. It contrasts strongly with Margerie Glacier, which is ‘cleaner’ and nearly white at its face.

A highlight of our day was rounding the bend of Jaw Point, which is five miles from the Johns Hopkins Glacier. The view was stunning; the glacier far ahead enormous. The black lines (medial moraines) on the top of the glacier and on the front of its 250-foot tall face displayed beautiful patterns. There were countless pieces of ice in the water, as we got closer we realized that there were hundreds of harbor seals resting on the floating ice. The seals closer to the ship lifted their heads and watched us, as we watched them.

At Gloomy Knob we found half a dozen mountain goats – creamy white, furry dots on a steep, rocky mound of rock. As we pulled away, sharp eyes noticed two more brown bears! The ability the goats have to climb very steep rocky slopes, help them avoid predators such as bears.

Then we had a rare sighting indeed: sun! It shone on us and on South Marble Island with its Steller sea lions and puffins, kittiwakes and murres. One or two of the largest male sea lions had gotten onto very high rock outcrops, and the rest of the sea lions remained far below. The tufted puffins were irresistibly cute with their huge, colorful bills, and yellow head feathers. Some of them flew close past the ship’s bow.

Before dinner, Linda, our Park Ranger who had joined us for the day, presented junior ranger badges to a few of our youngest guests. (Congratulations!) After dinner, we stretched our legs ashore at Bartlett Cove, for walks in the new forest or visits to the Glacier Bay Visitor Center.