Glacier Bay, Our Eighth and Final Alaskan National Park

Our trip to Glacier Bay, N.P. originated on an Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to Juneau, then a continuation flight to Gustavus, AK.

At the Gustavus airport

A Glacier Bay Lodge shuttle met us and the drive was the spitting image of actor Seth Grogan.

Number 8 in the books

And he was just as funny!

Bartlett Cove from our room

We checked into the lodge and went to the park’s visitor center to collect our eight, and final Alaskan national park stamp. To celebrate we dined in the lodge’s restaurant, enjoying a bottle of wine and eating several courses and way too much, before turning in for the night.

Jane is celebrating!

The next morning we boarded another catamaran for an all-day cruise and some glacier viewing.  The cruise started with some mandatory slow motoring through whale inhabited waters within the national park’s boundaries.

Sea lions lounging

Within 20 minutes from the dock we spotted the characteristic blows of humpback whales.

Puffins!

What was cool was that one of the whales started fluking (flashing the full tail as it prepares for a deep dive). But, then it got cooler. The whale started breeching (leaping out of the water) and pect slapping (slapping it pectoral fins against the water as it reentered).

Humpback waving at us

This display went on for about 15 minutes, and then we left the whale.

Beautiful scenery

Our next wildlife encounter was seeing some sea lions on some islands. The sea lion population in the park has been increasing in recent years while declining over Alaska as a whole. Also in the adjacent waters we spotted our first puffins and tufted puffins. They were skittish about getting close to the boat, but really cool to see. We went a little further before a brown bear was spotted.

Dropping the kayakers off

Everyone on the boat got really wound up about seeing a bear, but we have seen so many, we barely took any pictures.

OK! One more brown bear pic

About halfway to the glaciers, the captain beached the boat on a sandy shore to unload 6 kayakers who would spend the next week kayaking through the passage and literally being totally shut off (OK, they probably had a sat phone) from civilization. During the stop we also picked up 5 souls who were dropped off in the wild previously. Underway again, we spotted some mountain goats, but the critters are so high up the mountains that we were unable to get any good images.

We finally made it to the Margerie Glacier and it was breathtaking! Margerie Glacier is a stable (neither gaining nor loosing mass) tide-water glacier that is about 21 miles long, 350 feet high (~250 feet above the water and 100 feet below the water), and about 1 mile wide at its terminus.

Margerie Glacier and blue ice

This is the glacier that is featured in all of the cruise line brochures as evidenced by the Holland America Statendam which was also viewing the glacier.

Enjoying the view

The boat captain held the boat in front of the glacier for about 40 minutes, to allow the passengers an opportunity to see the glacier calve. During this period we saw 5 calving events, but none of them were major. One of the coolest things we got to see was the blue ice that is seen in glacial ice.

Some visitors getting a free ride

White ice absorbs all the colors of the visible light spectrum and appears white in color. However, when the ice refracts the sun’s rays, the shorter, higher energy blue rays have enough energy to reflect a blue color to the parts of the ice where refraction is greatest.

Bartlett Cove at low tide

This results in bright blue patches throughout the ice that isn’t easily captured with a camera. But the effect was beautiful. We observed the glacier in its finest then took a slow cruise back to the lodge in Bartlett Cove. We returned to the lodge with a couple of hours to wait before the shuttle took us into Gustavas for the flight back to Juneau.

A low tide hike!

This would be Jane’s final “little plane” flight and we had a great time visiting with the receptionist for the air service. We had an easy flight back to Juneau and went to a local Mexican restaurant for a great dinner. We got back to our room and turned in early for our flight back to Anchorage the next day.