Glacier Bay National Park, Southeast Alaska
A gray, wet morning found us at the headquarters of Glacier Bay National Park, where we picked up our park ranger Beth Brindle. We immediately took off to the north, into Glacier Bay proper, and then had our breakfast. The first stop of the morning was at South Marble Island, where we had an excellent opportunity of watching scores of birds: kittiwakes, herring gulls, oystercatchers, pigeon guillemots, muirs, surf scoters and cormorants. But those birds that we were really awaiting, and that did capture our imagination were the tufted puffins! Quite a few were seen floating in the vicinity of our ship, and some flying by. And then we saw the so much rarer horned puffins, also flying by the ship, beating their wings at such a fast clip!
On we sailed, north into the bay, and promptly were swallowed by a fogbank where we felt completely lost, out of sight of land. But eventually it did appear, and we slowly wended our way into the small group of islands of North Sandy Cove, hidden partially in the high fog. We made a brief, shallow sojourn into Muir Inlet. Before we reached Tidal Inlet, we spotted a big black bear, and followed it with our binoculars for a while, as it foraged for greens high above our ship, in a small meadow. Here in Tidal Inlet we stayed a while longer, admiring the high mountains with still so much snow, again looking for wildlife, be it birds or mammals.
Up into the bay again, to its end, a few miles from the Canadian border. Here were the two glaciers that we intended to watch for a while: Margerie, all white/bluish and clean, and the giant of them all, the Grand Pacific. This last glacier is almost completely covered by rocks and sand, all morainal material. After seeing a small calving and enjoying them for a while, we set sail again to the south, to check out Lamplugh Glacier. Later, after a good lecture on Old-Growth Forests, we again went on to the bow, and traveled all the way back to park headquarters. Here we still had another hike in the forest, and eventually, at eleven PM, left the park heading south, to a new adventure in the morrow.
A gray, wet morning found us at the headquarters of Glacier Bay National Park, where we picked up our park ranger Beth Brindle. We immediately took off to the north, into Glacier Bay proper, and then had our breakfast. The first stop of the morning was at South Marble Island, where we had an excellent opportunity of watching scores of birds: kittiwakes, herring gulls, oystercatchers, pigeon guillemots, muirs, surf scoters and cormorants. But those birds that we were really awaiting, and that did capture our imagination were the tufted puffins! Quite a few were seen floating in the vicinity of our ship, and some flying by. And then we saw the so much rarer horned puffins, also flying by the ship, beating their wings at such a fast clip!
On we sailed, north into the bay, and promptly were swallowed by a fogbank where we felt completely lost, out of sight of land. But eventually it did appear, and we slowly wended our way into the small group of islands of North Sandy Cove, hidden partially in the high fog. We made a brief, shallow sojourn into Muir Inlet. Before we reached Tidal Inlet, we spotted a big black bear, and followed it with our binoculars for a while, as it foraged for greens high above our ship, in a small meadow. Here in Tidal Inlet we stayed a while longer, admiring the high mountains with still so much snow, again looking for wildlife, be it birds or mammals.
Up into the bay again, to its end, a few miles from the Canadian border. Here were the two glaciers that we intended to watch for a while: Margerie, all white/bluish and clean, and the giant of them all, the Grand Pacific. This last glacier is almost completely covered by rocks and sand, all morainal material. After seeing a small calving and enjoying them for a while, we set sail again to the south, to check out Lamplugh Glacier. Later, after a good lecture on Old-Growth Forests, we again went on to the bow, and traveled all the way back to park headquarters. Here we still had another hike in the forest, and eventually, at eleven PM, left the park heading south, to a new adventure in the morrow.
