Our last full day on National Geographic Sea Bird began at one of North America’s most beautiful locations, the tidewater terminus of the Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. Entering the park in early morning, we sailed the length of the fjord to arrive at dawn with the 200 foot wall of ice less than a half-mile off our port side. The bow began to fill with guests awakening early to enjoy the quiet solitude of this spectacular view and as the sun grew brighter we were witness to repeated calving events culminating with one of the largest ice falls this naturalist has seen in over 10 years of sailing in Southeast Alaska. An hour passed quickly in front of the glacier. In addition to the glacial spectacle, we observed numerous birds flying around the glacier taking advantage of the feeding opportunities made available by the falling ice.
We sailed south after breakfast, heading toward Johns Hopkins Inlet and our second close look at a tidewater glacier. As we approached Jaw Point, the bedrock geology took center stage with an extraordinary exposure of the Tarr Inlet Suture Zone. These rocks, laid bare by the recent retreat of the Johns Hopkins Glacier represent a complex mélange of highly deformed rocks that were accreted to the edge of the growing North American continent during Mesozoic time. Rounding Jaw Point, we saw the Johns Hopkins Glacier rising from the water’s edge. A rare glacier in this time of climate change, it is advancing into the inlet from its mountain snowfield in the Fairweather Range, nearly ten miles west of its terminus.
Our return voyage toward park headquarters allowed us a final opportunity to search for wildlife. Glacier Bay really delivered! Through the channel east of Russell Island (Russell Cut), we spent nearly an hour watching the foraging behavior of a beautiful coastal brown bear and a lone wolf scavenging along the shoreline. Further south, on Gloomy Knob we viewed numerous mountain goats, and finally, at North and South Marble Islands, we were entertained by a large group of noisy “Steller” or northern sea lions and hundreds of birds including both tufted and horned puffins, common murres, pelagic cormorants, and black-legged kittiwakes; just to name a few!
The remaining afternoon was spent learning more about the park and its native people from our hosts, Park Ranger Daniel Pettys and Tlingit Cultural Heritage Guide, Alice Haldane. After leaving the park, we made our way south toward Sitka where we will say goodbye to our new friends and head home and on to other adventures. Regardless of where we go or what we do, we all hope there will be more adventures like the week we just experienced in this wonderful land of Alaska.
