Glacier Bay National Park
A classic Southeast Alaska “silver mist” dominated the landscape of Glacier Bay as we picked up our Ranger Sarah Betcher and our Cultural Interpreter Alice Haldane at 6 a.m. on the dock at Bartlett Cove where the park headquarters are located.
The first stop on our 65-mile journey up the Bay were the South Marble Islands, where a profusion of birds and Stellar sea lions could be heard as well as seen. Like the Stellars we saw in the Inian Islands, these are all males, unsuccessful refugees from the mating battles of the offshore breeding islands. As for the birds, this is a major nesting ground—safe from most predators, except other birds like eagles and sometimes peregrine falcons. Glaucous-winged gulls and kittiwakes predominated, but most of us focused on the tufted puffins that make cavity nests in the thin soils that have developed in the vegetated parts of the cliffs.
Turning into Tidal Inlet, we discovered a brown bear sow with her two cubs and watched them as they prowled along the intertidal zone looking for a meal. They mostly smashed and ate barnacles and blue mussels, which seems like meager fare for a bear. However, Mama bear effortlessly turned over big rocks looking for more substantial food, such as crabs or chitons. On the next beach we had an exceptional wildlife siting. Three adult wolves and at least two pups were also foraging and dining in the intertidal zone. However on a meadow knoll behind the beach a very large brown bear sat carefully watching the proceedings on the beach. Eventually one wolf crossed the stream and nonchalantly wandered up bear’s knoll. The bear took exception to interloper and chased the wolf away; but the wily canine circled around and seemed to be stalking the bear. They moved out of sight into the woods before we saw the end of the story.
After lunch we reached the northeastern part of the bay, where the blue and white Margerie and the brown rock mantled Grand Pacific glaciers can be found. By then the silver mist had lifted and we were treated to magnificent blue skies and sunshine. We spent about 45 minutes about a quarter mile from the 250-foot-high front face of the Margerie, which flows directly into the seawater, giving us a close up view of the sculptural intricacies of the serac towers and the complicated interplay of tidewater and ice movement. The interplay was best manifested by a series of “calving” events, where blocks of ice as much as ten stories high broke of and fell into the fjord waters with a thunderous boom that the Tlingits called “sum dum” (very approximately translated as “white thunder”).
The rest of our afternoon was spent working our way back down the Bay observing more glaciers and mountain peaks that had been hidden by the morning mist. The prospective Junior Rangers had a natural history training session and created some impressive pieces of art using melt water from glacial ice picked up near the Margerie Glacier. The last event was a visit to the historic Glacier Bay Lodge; some of us going directly up the path from the dock, others doing a mile-long interpretative hike through the woods to get there. All in all it was a glorious day that we will remember long after we return to our homes in the lower latitudes of the USA.
