Glacier Bay National Park
Day Five - Alaska - 2018
An entire day spent checking out the sights of Glacier Bay National Park.
Map Credit: OpenStreetMap
1. Glacier Bay #1
Glacier Bay became a National Monument in 1925, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and a National Park in 1980.
On day five I woke at around 4AM, not wanting to miss any of the sights in Glacier Bay National Park. When booking an Alaska cruise, you will typically have an optional destination, such as Tracy Arm Fjord or Hubbard Glacier. I chose Glacier Bay, which affords you views of many glaciers and spectacular Inside Passage scenery. It did not disappoint, and I highly, highly suggest the booking. Be aware: only two ships are allowed to enter Glacier Bay National Park per day.
Five landscape shots titled “Glacier Bay” will follow in this gallery - please refer to the map to see where these shots were taken.
2. Carroll Glacier
Carroll Glacier is a 24 kilometer (15 mile) long glacier. Despite receding for at least 100 years, it experienced a sudden surge of growth in the 1980s.
The entirety of Glacier Bay National Park is rimmed by mountains which were sliced by the once-gigantic Grand Pacific Glacier. The glacier advanced rapidly in the late 18th century and retreated just as quickly in the early 19th century. So quick was this process that Russian sailors could sail most of Icy Strait in 1740; by 1794 when George Vancouver sailed here, the passage was ice blocked; by the 1920s, the glacier had retreated to near its present position.
3. Clouds Swirl Around the Mountains
Clouds pass around the peaks of the appropriately named Coast Mountains.
Living on the eastern coast of the United States, I rarely see tall mountains, so of course I am taken aback when I see them. The fact that you can see the entire prominence of these mountains from sea level to their peaks made the experience even more memorable.
4. Glacier Bay #2
5. Orographic Lift
Here, orographic lift -when air is forced from low altitudes to high altitudes over a mountain- produces a tremendous precipitation-rich cloud.
I caught this cloud rising above the mountain at the last possible moment as it occurred off the stern of the boat as I was standing starboard. I can’t recall ever seeing lift of this type quite so prominently before.
6. Alpine Glacier Remnant
The deep u-shaped valley was left behind by a now-retreated glacier.
The area in and around Glacier Bay National Park has seen so much change in only a few hundred years that pristine and relatively new glacier valleys are easily identified.
7. Floe
A floe floats down Tarr Inlet.
I knew we were getting close to something spectacular once I started spotting floes heading down the inlet….
8. Margerie Glacier
(Click here to view a full-size version of this panorama.)
The face of Margerie Glacier is about 80 meters (250 feet) tall and 1.6 kilometers (one mile) wide at its face.
We had about an hour at Margerie Glacier, 30 minutes for each side of the boat and it was quite awesome to be next to such an impressive natural phenomenon.
9. Hitching a Ride
Two gulls rest atop a floe.
Having reached the boundaries of Glacier Bay National Park, the National Park Service cadre climbed aboard the ship (via a rope ladder, no less) after coming aside on their vessel, Serac. They gave a brief but very informative presentation on the park, and showed off some Glacier Bay National Park-specific kit, such as their waterproof Ranger hat carriers, and -of course- their mobile gift shop. We headed first towards Margerie Glacier at the north end of the park, where I caught these two gulls alongside our vessel.
10. Margerie Glacier Calving
Calving is the process by which ice breaks off from a glacier from the glacier’s expansion.
Ice calving is a rare sight, but luckily Margerie Glacier is advancing and not retreating as most glaciers are and we had the potential to witness one of nature’s spectacles. We admittedly did not witness a large chunk of ice complete its very long, slow journey to the sea, but we did see a few smaller pieces break off, such as this one. More memorable to me than seeing these pieces of ice hit splash into the sea was the noise the glacier made as it scraped alongside the adjacent rock. I realize you cannot convey this in a photograph, so I’ll just have to encourage you to travel to Margerie and witness it for yourself.
11. Sunning Seals
Seals rest atop the floe to catch some of the rare rays of sunlight this time of year in Alaska.
Our streak of good weather continued as we cruised Glacier Bay National Park, and by mid-morning the sun was shining down strongly - some might even say the temperature was pleasant! Even the animals were relishing the more than fair conditions.
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Now back to the travelogue!
12. Grand Pacific Glacier
While true it once covered the entirety of Glacier Bay National Park, the Grand Pacific Glacier is still a whopping 40 kilometers (40 miles) long.
Our time at Margerie Glacier over, we headed down Tarr Inlet to swap places with the other ship in the park at the entrance to Johns Hopkins Inlet.
13. Glacier Bay #3
14. Johns Hopkins Glacier
Like Margerie Glacier, Johns Hopkins Glacier -interestingly named after the University rather than the University’s namesake- is advancing.
We could not approach Johns Hopkins Glacier as we did Margerie as the inlet is a critical seal habitat. However, we could see quite a ways up the glacier valley, giving us a sense of how large these ice packs can get.
15. Lamplugh Glacier #1
(Click here to view a full-size version of this panorama.)
The deep blue color of Lamplugh Glacier’s ice comes from years of intense pressure packing the ice close together.
Lamplugh Glacier is a smaller glacier towards the end of Johns Hopkins Inlet. It is certainly a smaller glacier, but it is accessible by kayak from the small town of Gustavus. Perhaps one day I will be fortunate enough to return here and paddle straight up to its face. Three more Lamplugh Glacier photographs follow, including some intrepid kayakers.
16. Lamplugh Glacier #2
17. Lamplugh Glacier #3
18. Lamplugh Glacier #4
19. Glacier Bay #4
20. Glacier Bay #5
21. Glacier Bay #6
22. The Lone Fisherman
A fisherman plies the waters outside the Glacier Bay National Park boundaries.
Let me say first and foremost: I am very jealous of this person’s office. This boat is likely fishing halibut, the largest of Alaska’s commercial fish species (some on record have weighed over 200 kilograms). I was told that the only way to catch such a large fish is to use your boat to tire the fish to the top of the water where it can successfully be reeled in.
23. Baranof Island
Baranof Island is named for Alexander Baranov, the chief manager of the Russian-American Company, which established a trading post on the island in the 18th century.
After dinner-time, we were given a couple of hours of views of the amazing mountains on the east side of Baranof Island.
24. Baranof Island Sunset
The sun sets over the mountains on the eastern side of Baranof Island.
Day five of this trip was a near-perfect day weather-wise. It was capped off by a fantastic sunset just west of due north. I had forgotten just how long it takes the sun to set this far north in the summer.
25. Moonrise
A near full moon rises over the Inside Passage.
We were even treated to a clear-sky moonrise. Despite being in the north Pacific Ocean, the water was almost perfectly still - I suspect most of the ripples in the water were from the boat itself. I remember as the moon just peaked over the horizon, the entire starboard side of the boat just fell silent, even mid-sentence. This picture doesn’t do it justice (I had my wide-angle lens from the sunset still on my camera) and preventing motion blur while on the moving boat proved nearly impossible. But it’s not always about the perfect picture, but rather the experience - and this experience delivered.
