Wow! What a day! Yet another glorious and sunny day without a cloud in the sky! Our day began early when our park ranger and cultural interpreter came aboard at 6am in Glacier Bay National Park. After an introduction to the birds of the park during breakfast, we hit the decks to find ourselves at South Marble Island, a chunk of rock sticking out of the bay speckled with a plethora of birds. Sea lions basked along the rocky shorelines, baying and growling at one another; tufted puffins skittered along the water's surface and shot over our heads like shrapnel; fuzzy sea otters surveyed us with shrewd beady eyes. As we left South Marble behind, Mount Fairweather, the tallest mountain in the area, stood head and shoulders above the rest of the mountain range in stark and wild clarity.
The remainder of the morning was spent cruising along the shores searching for elusive wildlife. Mountain goats were discovered at Gloomy Knob, which was bright and cheery in today's sunshine. A tiny goat kid scrambled along the precipices beside its mother, and many goats were spied lolling along the cliff faces. A hoary marmot even made a brief appearance dashing across the polished limestone.
After lunch we arrived at the Margerie and Grand Pacific glaciers, both massive ice faces rising in the milky sediment-laden water. Margerie calved a few chunks of ice, cracking and popping as it moved ponderously forward into the inlet. We swung past a colony of nesting black-legged kittiwake gulls, where thousands of birds swirled into the heavens amidst a deafening cacophony and cloud of guano.
From there we turned south and began to retrace our steps back south through the bay, making a scenic detour into Johns Hopkins Inlet to view the stunning Johns Hopkins glacier and massive peaks of the Fairweather range. Lamplugh glacier resolutely resisted the urge to calve ice, but we enjoyed views of nearby Mount Cooper, the mountain named for the botanist who helped protect Glacier Bay in the 1920s. We also passed Reid glacier as we cruised south and enjoyed the beautiful vistas on our way back to the entrance of the park.
After dinner we said goodbye to our ranger and cultural interpreter and hit the trails to stretch our legs in the forest. Sunset was glorious and a good time was had by all.
