Glacier Bay National Park
There is nothing like an early morning icefall to start your day! This is what we got before, during, and after breakfast at Margerie Glacier on a misty morning in Glacier Bay National Park. Best in show was an ice flake about the size of a ten-story building that dropped 150 feet off the top of the glacier hitting the water with a thunderous roar and pushing out an impact wave that rocked our ship from stem to stern.
After leaving Margerie we all got together in the lounge to meet our Park Ranger Brad Mason and our Tlingit Cultural Interpreter Irene Lampe. Brad gave us a quick overview of the natural history of Glacier Bay. Irene followed with a description of an intriguing account of how the Tlingits lived near the mouth of the Bay until they were driven out by the advancing Grand Pacific glacier during the Little Ice Age.
Next we had planned to visit the Johns Hopkins Glacier, but there was so much ice in the inlet that it was unnavigable so we settled for a close-up view of the Lamplugh Glacier. We continued on to Russell Cut, a brown bear was seen ambling along the shore, casually turning over 60-pound boulders seeking a snack of crabs and mussels. This show definitely kept our attention until the bear was upstaged by the six-foot dorsal fin of a killer whale also looking for marine snacks offshore.
Cruising down bay we came to Gloomy Knob, which was looking gloomy indeed with dark grey marble rock wreathed in low misty clouds. After a diligent search we found one mountain goat on the rocks and hundreds of molting scoters lined up in a huge flotilla on the water. Around the corner heading into Tidal Inlet was the biggest natural history prize of the day—three wolves hanging out on the beach. Two were steadfastly napping while the other wandered a short distance between naps. There were also two young bears checking out a salmon stream who abruptly took off running—probably because they spotted the wandering wolf. Another bigger bear briefly came out of the woods, but went back in after a short look around. Tidal Inlet had no more wild things to offer us so we let our sleeping wolves lie and headed down bay again. After an interesting talk on Hoonah Tlingit language and culture by Irene, we poked into Geike Inlet, which was very scenic, but only a few birds and a harbor porpoise were seen.
For the birders on board South Marble Islands is the place to be in Glacier Bay. Hundreds of seabirds nest in the sheer cliffs including gulls, kittiwakes, cormorants, common murres, and pigeon guillemots. However the crowd favorite had to be the tufted puffins looking like little Nerf footballs with short wings that beat frantically to keep them airborne. An extra added attraction were several dozen Stellar sea lions hauled out on rock outcrops doing their vocal imitation of Harley Davidson motorcycles.
For Recap Jason shared photos that showed how to identify killer whales by unique characteristics of their dorsal fin. This was followed by Irene who summarized the Tlingit connection with Glacier Bay and Brad passed out the coveted Junior Ranger badges. The last event of the day was a trek up to the historic Glacier Bay Lodge at Bartlett Cove. This was accomplished by several different pathways. Some of us took the direct path from the dock to the Lodge. Others chose to do either a fast one-mile loop through the forest or a more leisurely interpretative hike with the natural history staff.
Although we didn’t see the sun on our Glacier Bay day, there was something magical about the incredible array of animals and landscapes in a setting of swirling mist that we will not soon forget.
