5/15/2023 Monday - It gets light very early here, around 4:00 a.m. We got up at 6:00 and spent some time outside taking photos and enjoying the scenery. We were in Glacier Bay National Park, a 3.3 million acre park centered around a bay system formed by enormous glaciers less than 300 years ago. This was during what is referred to as the "Little Ice Age" which peaked in 1750.
We were amazed at how many Sea Otters we were seeing, literally dozens. On our previous cruise we'd seen exactly one Sea Otter, very late in the trip.
We also saw lots of Marbled Murrelets, a bird that loves the icy ocean waters.
After breakfast we got off the ship for a couple of hours at Bartlett Cove, in Glacier Bay NP.
We walked a nice 1-mile trail with a few interpretive points and signs. The area was lush and mossy, with two still blackwater ponds. We heard a couple of Varied Thrush and saw several Hermit Thrushes.
There were a couple of interesting displays as well. One featured a large dugout canoe of the type used by the Tinglet people of the area.
Another display was of a well-known Humpback Whale named Snow that was struck and killed by a cruise ship in 2001. The community joined together with experts to salvage her skeleton and built this amazing tribute.
We checked out the tiny Visitor Center before we left, and Teri found a couple of pins that we will turn into refrigerator magnets.
Once back on the ship we attended orientations for kayaking (got fitted with PFD) and then hiking activities. We chose a guided kayak trip for our afternoon activity and ended up with a 3:30 departure. We had some time to kill after lunch and sat out on the sun deck for a while. The weather was amazing, with not a cloud in the sky and comfortably warm. It turns out that the Captain had reversed the schedule of our cruise and brought us up to Glacier Bay NP at the beginning of the week rather than at the end because of this unusually nice weather.
As we motored toward our afternoon kayaking location we saw plenty of wildlife, including a few Humpback Whales. The rules in Glacier Bay NP forbid any boats from following or lingering near whales, so we simply enjoyed them as they passed by us.
We passed by some small islands that were covered with Steller Sea Lions.
In some places we were close enough to smell them. Stinky!
We also saw the first of what would be many Sea Otters carrying their "babies" on their chests. At this point the babies were about as large as the mothers, but the arrangement seemed to suit them both.
At 3:30 we headed out with a group of 5 other kayaks and our guide (Mickie) for a great paddle around Puffin Island, which ironically, has no Puffins!
A curious Sea Lion decided to follow our group for a while.
We returned to the ship around 5:15, relaxed a bit and then had dinner. As we cruised along we spotted a couple of Tufted Puffins in the water beside the ship. These are very cool birds and we were glad to see them.
Hmmm, the ability to modify the itinerary and actually get off the ship in Glacier Bay National Park - those are two things that weren't happening on our larger ship cruise. It is looking like fun!
ReplyDeleteThat is certainly the appeal of small ships for us.
DeleteDay 2 looked like a good mix of adventure and relaxation. I agree that the ability to change the itinerary is a big plus of your smaller ship.
ReplyDeleteHiking and kayaking in Alaska – all on the same day – awesome!
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