On Tuesday, July 29, the guests aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion awoke in Glacier Bay National Park. The park, a UNESCO world heritage site, is a phenomenally beautiful 5,000 square mile area in Southeast Alaska’s wilderness. Made spectacular for its vast variety in terrain and wildlife, this section of land is dramatic and plentiful.
For the morning the ship cruised around South Marble Island, Gloomy Knob, and up to Lamplugh Glacier. South Marble Island is an outcropping in the middle of a huge water channel. This piece of dry rock in the middle of deep water acts as a fantastic point for wildlife sightings, including tufted puffins, oyster catchers, and Steller sea lions. South Marble is teeming with ubiquitous wildlife, and when the guest’s eyes were satiated the ship pressed on towards Gloomy Knob.
Gloomy Knob is a rocky point a few miles down the waterway from South Marble Island. This area features fantastically steep rocky walls that plunge into the ocean from great heights. Upon approach, the keen eyes of many naturalists found mountain goats, a spectacular sight along seemingly impossible cliffs. Mountain goats rely on this unsettling terrain to protect them from predators, and seem to sleep quite comfortably on their precarious perch.
Lamplugh Glacier is an awe inspiring sight whether it’s the viewers first or thousandth time setting their eyes on it. The dense blue of the ice is fantastic in nature, and the sheer girth and height of the glacial structure is truly remarkable. When the glacier calves it emits an intensely deep roar which echoes throughout the glacial valley and into the ears on onlookers. This age old ice that plummets into the water churns up marine invertebrates to the surface, enticing the gulls to gather and fervently search for their next meal. Glaciers like this are an obvious and major landmark in Glacier Bay National Park, and are absolutely necessary to protect.
Glacier Bay offered amazing views of wildlife, spectacular sightings of glaciers and wonderful stories and tales from the park rangers and Tlinglit representative. After a fantastic day of education and beauty the guests would take a final relaxing walk outside in Bartlett Cove, enjoying this fantastic land all the way to the last drop.
