Glacier Bay National Park
This morning the National Geographic Sea Lion picked up Emily, a National Park Service ranger, who would join us for our 65-mile journey through Glacier Bay. Traveling north through Sitakaday Narrows we approached our first area of activity and after breakfast found ourselves surrounded by a cacophony of sounds emanating from South Marble Island. Steller sea lions, kittiwakes, and pigeon guillemots sang their song of the wild as we observed tufted puffins in flight over a sea otter and pup hauled out beneath the largest species of sea lion. What a sight to see such an assemblage of birds in such a small space preparing to nest on an island without predators…granted the regal eagle perched on the grassy knoll reminded them of who was king.
Further down the fjord we explored the mouth of tidal inlet searching for large stick nests of our national symbol while one eagle eye spotted mountain goats on high. Making our way back round the bend we were rewarded with closer looks of the amazing mountain goat at Gloomy Knob and with closer observation soon discovered a recently born precocious kid. Animals that both graze and browse, the kids are able to keep up with their mom when only hours old and it was fun to think that this playful child had just been born! Leaving the knob of gloom we relished in the beauty of the beast the color of winter and the amazing proximity we were awarded to an animal that typically dwells in impossible terrain.
Excited by the prospects of a rumor we headed to the isthmus of the Gilbert Peninsula where another vessel had reported signs of flesh and carcass. A park service research boat was pulling out as we pulled in, confirming the dead and beached whale. We hoped for critters crawling but saw none, so made our way to Margerie Glacier. Seeing sunlight over Lamplugh Glacier and the peaks beneath the Brady ice field, we experienced one of those aaaa’haaaa moments before another delicious meal.
At the end of Tarr Inlet and at the border with Canada we counted our border blessings in the company of a cooperative eagle on ice. Margerie Glacier and the Grand Pacific, mere relics of their past tremendousness, reminded us of our smallness in this vast world and this landscape carved by ice!
Returning to the place we started this morning, we soaked in the dynamic day only to be treated with a grand finale. Carcass and kills always provide potential for the food chain and so we returned to the beached whale carcass – the amazing grace of the “Big-winged New Englander” who, meeting its demise, would now feed the fauna of the terrestrial world.
How blessed we were to find a coastal brown bear feeding on the total ground score! From the looks of it, it has been a while since the humpback whale met its demise, but that did not stop the hungry curiosity of a brown bear recently emerged from winter den and fasting!
