Southeast Alaskans joke that Captain Cook named Mount Fairweather with its towering 15,000 foot peak in 1778 and no one has seen it since, but this morning the whole Fairweather Range gleamed beneath a cloudless sky as National Geographic Sea Bird steamed into Glacier Bay National Park. After breakfast, we coasted along the side of South Marble islands whose shores were packed with resting Steller sea lions laying in cuddled masses on the rocks occasionally lifting their heads to grumble at wet newcomers clambering over the top of the pile. Tufted puffins bobbed in the waters around the island dipping their faces into the water in search of fish before disappearing for deep dives after their prey.
Later in the morning as we approached the rocky promontory known as Gloomy Knob, a keen set of eyes spotted a single mountain goat browsing from a precarious perch. Soon more than a dozen had been spotted including nanny goats with young kids amongst the crevices and ravines. Not far beyond Gloomy Knob, we came across a mother brown bear with three cubs rummaging through the rocks of the intertidal. While she easily flipped massive boulder to feed on barnacles and other tasty treats, the cubs could be seen working with all their might to follow her example and turn small rocks aside.
After lunch we worked our way between floating icebergs to within a quarter mile of the Johns Hopkins Glacier, one of the few “healthy” glaciers that has not been in catastrophic calving retreat in recent times. Atop the floating icebergs lay hundreds of harbor seals. We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the dramatic scenery of the glacially carved fjords. In the late evening we fanned out to explore the forests of Bartlett Bay in the setting sun before returning to the ship to hear the fabulous stories of local writer, photographer, and conservationist Kim Heacox.
