Glacier Bay National Park

We had our earliest departure, 5:40 am, on the trip so far which earned us calm waters back across Icy Strait to Bartlett Cove and the check-in point for Glacier Bay National Park. On the way we lingered at Point Adolphus as we had heard that we would always find humpback whales there. This turned out to be true as they were all around us. At one point, we turned off the engine and sat there listening for their breaths as they came up for air. It was thrilling! We also saw many sea lions.

Then it was time to move on to Glacier Bay. The National Park has put into place many rules in order to protect the whales. Any pleasure boat has to obtain permission to enter the park and only 25 recreational boats are allowed in Glacier Bay at a time. Since this is early in the season and not as many boats seem to be in Alaska this summer, we did not have any trouble getting a permit to enter. Secondly, we had to check in with the rangers and attend an orientation upon arrival. Lastly, our dog was not allowed anywhere in the park except on paved roads near the Glacier Bay Lodge. We had worked out a plan before we even arrived in Alaska that John and Roxie would have Katie for a whole day while Rod and I went on a park tour boat. John and Roxie had done the tour boat trip three years ago. This worked out great. The tour boat was a high-speed catamaran which took us some 65 miles to the top of Glacier Bay. There was a park ranger with us all day who interpreted what we were seeing and answered our questions. She and the rest of the crew were wonderful about spotting wildlife and getting us as close as possible to all of the attractions. The highlights for us were twice seeing grizzly bears on the beach, mountain goats on a rocky hillside with a baby goat, an island covered with huge Steller sea lions, and the very cute sea otters. I also added a couple of birds to my life list—tufted puffins and yellow-tailed loons. Near the top of Glacier Bay, we saw the glaciers that the area is so famous for. There was quite a bit of ice in the water and our tour boat ran right through the patches without any worry. We had wonderful weather today which made our trip even better. Two notations we made in our Log were that we got to 59 degrees North latitude today which is just below the border between Alaska and Yukon, Canada.

Margarie Glacier

The next morning both boats went to the next bay to the west called Dundas Bay, still in the confines of the national park, but one does not need a permit to enter. It is rarely visited by cruising boats so offers solitude and plenty of chances to see bears and sea otters which we did. We anchored in the head of the bay overnight. Here we got as far west as we will be—136 degrees West longitude.

Our next destination is Elfin Cove, across Icy Strait and very close to the Pacific Ocean.

Signing off,

Susan, Rod, and Katie 

John Hopkins Glacier