It’s been an absolutely amazing day here in Glacier Bay National Park. Two visitors joined us aboard National Geographic Sea Lion today: Glacier Bay National Park ranger Heidi Herter and Alaska Native Voices interpreter Alice Haldane. Both were an outstanding wealth of knowledge and information, providing us with several programs and interesting commentary throughout the day.
Our first stop of the day was at South Marble Island – an excellent location for spotting seabirds and Steller’s sea lions. It was the first time on the trip we saw puffins, and everyone enjoyed watching these beautiful seabirds from the bow of the ship. We continued cruising north, scanning the shoreline for any sign of wildlife and we came across a coastal brown bear walking along the water’s edge. While this particular bear looked quite young, only a few years old, these massive animals can grow up to 11 feet in length and weigh over a thousand pounds when full grown! We watched the bear for several minutes before moving on to a rock formation known as Gloomy Knob where we spotted several mountain goats climbing high in the cliffs. Just as we were approaching the cliffs, we noticed that there was another brown bear, this one climbing the rocky base of the cliffs to get access to mussels and barnacles. The water was extremely deep all the way up to the cliff’s edge, and we were able to get within a very short distance of the bear for some unbelievable wildlife viewing of both the bear down below and the goats above. It was truly outstanding.
A few minutes after leaving Gloomy Knob, we spotted another four bears on the coast! Yet another amazing sighting, we were extremely fortunate today to have seen six different bears along the way here in Glacier Bay National Park. We continued cruising, and finally made it to John Hopkins Glacier where we witnessed some amazing calving. Massive pieces of ice were breaking from the glacier every few minutes, and the loud, crackling sound echoed throughout the entire fjord creating a thunderous boom.
Just as we were leaving the park, the sun peeked through the clouds and revealed a stunning rainbow in the distance. It was, in many ways, the icing on the cake to a perfect day here in Glacier Bay National Park.
