Our journey into Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve started last night when Park Ranger Amy Broadbeck and Tlingit Cultural Interpreter William Horton-Garrison joined us for our overnight journey 55 miles north into this unique national park. We woke this morning in front of the cobalt-blue ice face of Lamplugh Glacier as a bald eagle flew over the bow with a fish in its talons. As the name implies, we visited many glaciers in deep bays carved out by ice; Lamplugh, Margerie and Johns Hopkins glaciers. As the ship sat motionless, we could see the ice calve from these spectacular tidewater glaciers and hear the thunderous sounds reverberate off the steep walls of these fjords. Harbor seals, hauled-out on ice, contently watched us as the black-legged Kittiwakes soared overhead.
When Captain George Vancouver sailed by the entrance of Glacier Bay in 1794, the glacier reached into Icy Strait, approximately 65 miles from where we visited this morning by ship. Glacier Bay is a 3.3 million acre living laboratory for studying glaciology, a scientific wonder of mountains, glaciers and bays and is a spiritual land to the Tlingit people. It is a treat to see such a pristine place in its protected and well-studied state.
On our southbound journey, Interpreter Horton-Garrison shared his wonderful Tlingit stories about his people that have occupied this area for millennia and Ranger Broadbeck educated us on some insightful history about this wonderful place. The wildlife sightings continued as we plied these placid waters that were formerly covered in ice. Mystic fog surrounded Gloomy Knob as we observed a bald eagle roosted on its nest and pelagic cormorants on the cliffs. Further south, Steller sea lions occupied the polished rocks covered by an extreme tide of Marble Island as seabirds gathered in groups searching for food around these newly-formed islands when the glacier retreated approximately 80 years ago. What a great way to spend the day on National Geographic Sea Lion.
