Glacier Bay National Park, Southeastern Alaska
How about a BIG National Park? Three point three million acres BIG! Founded first in 1925 as a National Monument, and then in 1980 as a National Park, today it is a park with many services, but also with tremendously wild characteristics. Glaciers (hundreds) abound, snow-covered mountains surround you (up to 15,320 ft., Mt Fairweather) and incredible dense forests of huge Sitka spruce and western hemlocks are everywhere. Wildlife abounds; among the larger ones are the brown and the black bears, moose, mule deer and wolves. In the huge bay we saw humpback whales, orcas, Steller sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters, as well as Dall’s and harbor porpoise. And the bird diversity was incredible. Just today we saw 20 different species in the bay.
We had started our sojourn early at Bartlett Cove, the Park headquarters, and sailed into the bay, stopping to see different islands and animals, including the magnificent South Marble Island, where everybody was awed by the diversity of these flying animals, but especially by the colorful puffins. Here are two large sea lion roosts where the low grumbling of these animals is the loudest sound. Further ahead we visited Gloomy Knob, where we saw numerous mountain goats as we sailed by. Most were nannies with kids.
And then, after sailing to the northern end of the bay, we were struck by the sight of the two glaciers that form the end of Tarr Inlet, white-blue Margerie (straight ahead in the photo), and the 2-mile fronted Ferris/Grand Pacific (on the right), this last one covered with millions of tons of moraine material, almost black in color. After watching it for a while, we saw small and medium calving events, with great splashes and noise!
Already back at Bartlett Cove, we walked along an interesting forest path where we saw four different species of orchids (all tiny and green, barely a few inches high), as well as other shade-loving plants.
How about a BIG National Park? Three point three million acres BIG! Founded first in 1925 as a National Monument, and then in 1980 as a National Park, today it is a park with many services, but also with tremendously wild characteristics. Glaciers (hundreds) abound, snow-covered mountains surround you (up to 15,320 ft., Mt Fairweather) and incredible dense forests of huge Sitka spruce and western hemlocks are everywhere. Wildlife abounds; among the larger ones are the brown and the black bears, moose, mule deer and wolves. In the huge bay we saw humpback whales, orcas, Steller sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters, as well as Dall’s and harbor porpoise. And the bird diversity was incredible. Just today we saw 20 different species in the bay.
We had started our sojourn early at Bartlett Cove, the Park headquarters, and sailed into the bay, stopping to see different islands and animals, including the magnificent South Marble Island, where everybody was awed by the diversity of these flying animals, but especially by the colorful puffins. Here are two large sea lion roosts where the low grumbling of these animals is the loudest sound. Further ahead we visited Gloomy Knob, where we saw numerous mountain goats as we sailed by. Most were nannies with kids.
And then, after sailing to the northern end of the bay, we were struck by the sight of the two glaciers that form the end of Tarr Inlet, white-blue Margerie (straight ahead in the photo), and the 2-mile fronted Ferris/Grand Pacific (on the right), this last one covered with millions of tons of moraine material, almost black in color. After watching it for a while, we saw small and medium calving events, with great splashes and noise!
Already back at Bartlett Cove, we walked along an interesting forest path where we saw four different species of orchids (all tiny and green, barely a few inches high), as well as other shade-loving plants.
