Glacier Bay National Park
“The master builder chose for a tool, not the thunder and lightening to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent nor the eroding rain, but the tender snowflake, noiselessly falling through unnumbered generations.” John Muir
Today’s sojourn in Glacier Bay brought us very near to the same glaciers that inspired John Muir in 1879. These great rivers of ice shaped all of the awesome and rugged landscape that we will view and visit during our voyage this week. Glaciers begin as snowfall in the mountains that accumulates until the weight of the snow compresses itself and changes into ice. Eventually the mass of the ice must obey the laws of gravity and begins to move down the mountainside like gigantic rivers in ever-so-slow-motion, picking up rocks, grinding and carving deep valleys filled with dense ice. As these glaciers retreated back up the valley they created, Glacier Bay grew dramatically and the ice face moved inland sixty miles from the time Captain George Vancouver named nearby Icy Strait in 1794 until today. The photo shows the 250-foot face of Margerie Glacier at the head of Tarr Inlet during a calving event. This receding glacier is 21 miles long and flows 6-8 feet per day or 2000 ft per year!
Stunning vistas and the delightful surprise of wildlife sightings filled this day. The towering snow-capped Fairweather Range at over 15,000 feet was jagged against a blue sky while we observed several groups of mountain goats scrambling up absurdly steep slopes while we fervently hoped they wouldn’t fall. The wondrous tufted puffins, marbled and Kittlitz’s murrelets and common murres were most of the alcids present in these waters, though rafts of surf and white-winged scoters were abundant.
We were certainly surprised and excited by another close encounter with a large pod of active killer whales; they were probably the same group we spent time with yesterday morning and evening. And finally, near Boulder Island in southern Glacier Bay, the first sea otters of the spring have appeared - about fifty of these smallest marine mammals were cavorting in the new kelp beds while we enjoyed cocktails and warm sunny weather on the bow.
“The master builder chose for a tool, not the thunder and lightening to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent nor the eroding rain, but the tender snowflake, noiselessly falling through unnumbered generations.” John Muir
Today’s sojourn in Glacier Bay brought us very near to the same glaciers that inspired John Muir in 1879. These great rivers of ice shaped all of the awesome and rugged landscape that we will view and visit during our voyage this week. Glaciers begin as snowfall in the mountains that accumulates until the weight of the snow compresses itself and changes into ice. Eventually the mass of the ice must obey the laws of gravity and begins to move down the mountainside like gigantic rivers in ever-so-slow-motion, picking up rocks, grinding and carving deep valleys filled with dense ice. As these glaciers retreated back up the valley they created, Glacier Bay grew dramatically and the ice face moved inland sixty miles from the time Captain George Vancouver named nearby Icy Strait in 1794 until today. The photo shows the 250-foot face of Margerie Glacier at the head of Tarr Inlet during a calving event. This receding glacier is 21 miles long and flows 6-8 feet per day or 2000 ft per year!
Stunning vistas and the delightful surprise of wildlife sightings filled this day. The towering snow-capped Fairweather Range at over 15,000 feet was jagged against a blue sky while we observed several groups of mountain goats scrambling up absurdly steep slopes while we fervently hoped they wouldn’t fall. The wondrous tufted puffins, marbled and Kittlitz’s murrelets and common murres were most of the alcids present in these waters, though rafts of surf and white-winged scoters were abundant.
We were certainly surprised and excited by another close encounter with a large pod of active killer whales; they were probably the same group we spent time with yesterday morning and evening. And finally, near Boulder Island in southern Glacier Bay, the first sea otters of the spring have appeared - about fifty of these smallest marine mammals were cavorting in the new kelp beds while we enjoyed cocktails and warm sunny weather on the bow.
