“The environment grows younger and fresher with every mile; it seems to generate a sense of anticipation—the scenery still to be seen, the animals to be discovered, the opportunities unfolding in a still-primitive land...” – The American West, Ann and Myron Sutton, 1965, on Glacier Bay
How many shades of gray are in this kaleidoscopic blue-gray remarkable wilderness of Glacier Bay this morning? At least 50! Bigger than 600,000 football fields, Glacier Bay was completely covered under 4,000 feet (1,200 m) of ice 200 years ago! In the middle of the bay, South Marble Island amazed us shortly after breakfast with large numbers of Steller’s sea lions, which we could smell and hear before we could see, and with a cornucopia of birds: hundreds of black-legged kittiwakes, glacous-winged gulls, common murres (penguins of the north!), pigeon guillemots, and many regal bald eagles. The elusive horned puffins didn’t escape us: with their harlequin clown-like make-up and white chest, we found them among their tufted cousins!
We were not done discussing the birdlife when we then came upon a quintessential Alaska symbol—a mama brown bear with a brand new cub of the year, mesmerizing us for the better part of a hour. Later, as we watched the wispy mist move swiftly up and around smooth granitic rock faces, which were once completely covered by the Grand Pacific glacier, several killer whales—orcas—surfaced near us like submarines with their tall dorsal fins like periscopes! They porpoised and spy-hopped, as we ooh-ed and aah-ed at perhaps the most highly revered marine mammal in the world. And all of that before lunch!
Glacier Bay had even more to offer in the afternoon! We steamed up to the end of Tarr Inlet to come face to face with Marjorie Glacier’s craggy ice towers. As we marveled at this glacier, one of few that is actually still growing rather than retreating, we were stunned by the spectacle of grumbling thunder as a house-sized piece calved into the bay, revealing brilliant deep blue ice within… A day to remember!
