Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
Sometimes it is hard to summarize all of the day’s experiences, feelings and sightings in a few words. Our day in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve was one of those times; but let’s see, I will give it a try. The early morning sky showed some blue, and conditions seemed favorable for clear conditions later. We arrived to South Marble Island shortly after breakfast, where life manifested itself in numerous ways as black-legged kittiwakes, Steller’s sea lions, horned puffins and bald eagles. Life everywhere! Meanwhile, the skies cleared up and by mid-morning we enjoyed the sunshine and the truly magnificent landscape of snow-covered peaks and their reflections over the smooth water. At Tidal Inlet we spotted a young black bear feeding on shore during the low tide, and later discovered a pair of brown bears at Russell Cut; the very big male followed the female, who was not quite ready yet to accept his romantic intentions and kept running away from him every time that he got close. He was so enthralled that he even charged us! Thank goodness that we were on board the ship!
Throughout the day we found mountain goats; they were so numerous that I lost track of their number, but one couple stood up among the rest: a nanny with her new born kid. Continuing our journey among stunning vistas and wildlife sightings, we eventually arrive to the Margerie and Lamplugh glaciers, where we got the chance to watch some very impressive calving. But our day was not over yet and a big surprise awaited us in the form of a female black bear with her two cubs, one being regular black whereas the other was bluish-grey, a Glacier bear! Glacier bears are a color morph of the black bear that is only found in the northern portion of Northeast Alaska and are very uncommon; the Tlingit cultural interpreter on board mentioned that this cub was only the second one that she has ever seen in her life! We all felt very lucky for having had the chance to observe such a beautiful creature and made for the perfect ending of an amazing day.
