Glacier Bay National Park, Southeast Alaska
Early in the morning we entered the World Heritage site of Glacier Bay National Park, our destination for the entire day. Pre-breakfast was spent cruising past humpback whales and harbor porpoise on our way to South Marble Island. At South Marble, we were not only wowed by the amazing geology, but also but the abundant animals inhabiting this metamorphic rock. Nesting seabirds were plentiful and quite noisy. Bald eagles continually flew over the black-legged kittiwake colony and sent these gull relatives chasing the intruder away while screaming out their namesake call of “ki-ti-wake.” Soon, our first tufted puffins of the trip were spotted and were quickly followed by the less common horned puffin. The finer points of seabird identification were discussed as we compared these 2 alcids, along with marbled and Kittlitz’s murrelets, common murres, and pigeon guillemots. As we slid around a corner, a grunting noise soon filled the air. A haul out of Steller’s sea lions came into view and we got excellent views of at least one hundred sea lions lounging on the rocks.
After breakfast we continued on through this glacially carved landscape on a quest for some land mammals. At gloomy knob, we failed to spot any mountain goats but were successful in spotting the fattest hoary marmot that any of us had seen. We then rounded a bend and entered John Hopkins Inlet where the massive Johns Hopkins glacier came into view. We crept within about a quarter mile of the 250 foot tall, 2 mile wide face of the glacier and were hoping to see some activity. We were quickly rewarded with a firework sounding display of cracking ice, and a huge chunk broke off and plummeted into the water. Many people screamed in joy at the resulting splashes and sounds, and all were amazed at the size of the waves created.
Meanwhile, the ship was surrounded by masses of harbor seals hauled out on the surrounding ice chunks. This inlet is a major pupping area and is closed for most of the spring and early summer to protect the pups. We counted over 1200 harbor seals in one area, and Jen Saulus, our National Park Service Ranger, reported that the pup counts for this year in this inlet were around 1,000. Even though it seems like a large number, this is a major decrease from the 4,000 recorded just a few years ago.
As we left Johns Hopkins Inlet we made one final search for a bear. After passing the outwash plain of a receding glacier, many of us had given up hope when one eagle-eyed observer finally spotted a bear. We watched as this brown bear left the shelter of the bushes and plunged into the water, possibly to cool off from the heat of the afternoon. What a wonderful ending to a fabulous day in this gigantic wilderness area.
Early in the morning we entered the World Heritage site of Glacier Bay National Park, our destination for the entire day. Pre-breakfast was spent cruising past humpback whales and harbor porpoise on our way to South Marble Island. At South Marble, we were not only wowed by the amazing geology, but also but the abundant animals inhabiting this metamorphic rock. Nesting seabirds were plentiful and quite noisy. Bald eagles continually flew over the black-legged kittiwake colony and sent these gull relatives chasing the intruder away while screaming out their namesake call of “ki-ti-wake.” Soon, our first tufted puffins of the trip were spotted and were quickly followed by the less common horned puffin. The finer points of seabird identification were discussed as we compared these 2 alcids, along with marbled and Kittlitz’s murrelets, common murres, and pigeon guillemots. As we slid around a corner, a grunting noise soon filled the air. A haul out of Steller’s sea lions came into view and we got excellent views of at least one hundred sea lions lounging on the rocks.
After breakfast we continued on through this glacially carved landscape on a quest for some land mammals. At gloomy knob, we failed to spot any mountain goats but were successful in spotting the fattest hoary marmot that any of us had seen. We then rounded a bend and entered John Hopkins Inlet where the massive Johns Hopkins glacier came into view. We crept within about a quarter mile of the 250 foot tall, 2 mile wide face of the glacier and were hoping to see some activity. We were quickly rewarded with a firework sounding display of cracking ice, and a huge chunk broke off and plummeted into the water. Many people screamed in joy at the resulting splashes and sounds, and all were amazed at the size of the waves created.
Meanwhile, the ship was surrounded by masses of harbor seals hauled out on the surrounding ice chunks. This inlet is a major pupping area and is closed for most of the spring and early summer to protect the pups. We counted over 1200 harbor seals in one area, and Jen Saulus, our National Park Service Ranger, reported that the pup counts for this year in this inlet were around 1,000. Even though it seems like a large number, this is a major decrease from the 4,000 recorded just a few years ago.
As we left Johns Hopkins Inlet we made one final search for a bear. After passing the outwash plain of a receding glacier, many of us had given up hope when one eagle-eyed observer finally spotted a bear. We watched as this brown bear left the shelter of the bushes and plunged into the water, possibly to cool off from the heat of the afternoon. What a wonderful ending to a fabulous day in this gigantic wilderness area.
