Having picked up National Park Ranger Kaylin Werth and Tlingit Cultural Interpreter Victor Hotch from Bartlett Cove under the bright sun of 5:30a.m., National Geographic Sea Bird steamed into Glacier Bay for a day of exploration.After breakfast, we skirted the edge of South Marble Islands in search of seabirds and Steller’s sea lions. Sure enough, both tufted puffins and horned puffins with their characteristic candy-corn bills of breeding plumage bobbed about in the water surrounding the islands diving from time to time in search of fish. Steller’s sea lions clambered up the rocks or lay in cuddled masses letting off occasional croaking groans of indignation at one another. Bird enthusiasts enjoyed excellent views of marbled murrelets, common murre, and harlequin ducks gathered in the rich fishing grounds.
Following in the footsteps of John Muir we continued deeper into the glacially carved fjord and were rewarded with more wildlife encounters. High up in the alpine scrub beyond the tree line, a keen-eyed naturalist spotted a group of mountain goats, which began quickly moving across the rugged terrain. The reason for their haste soon emerged: a brown bear worked its way towards them before realizing she had been spotted and disappearing over the ridge. In the deep waters around the ship sea otters laid on their backs tending pups or hammering open bits of crabs on their bellies. Passing Gloomy Knob, a dramatic outcrop of marble studded with fossilized marine material, we came across another group of mountain goats with two nanny goats and two kids perched on the rocky cliffs above the water. Beyond Queen Inlet, a pair of young brown bears wandered along the intertidal foraging barnacles and other invertebrates before disappearing into the vegetation.
After lunch we arrived at the northern end of Glacier Bay to the foot of the stunning Margerie glacier. With kittiwake gulls from a nearby colony wheeling in front of it, the sheer 250-foot face of Margerie glacier towered before us. The unusually clear weather provided as backdrop to the glacier spectacular views of Mount Fairweather whose peak towers to 15,400 feet. Making our way back south we wended along the western shore of the bay for rewarding views of the John’s Hopkins, Lamplugh, and Reid glaciers. In the late evening Victor Hotch shared with us the art, traditions, and mythologies of his people, the Tlingit who have called this region home for tens of thousands of years. After dinner we fanned out on foot to explore the moss laden forests of Bartlett’s cove. Only the setting sun, the allure of carrot cake cupcake, and the promise of the next day’s adventures could lure us back aboard.
