Day 34 – Sandy Cove to Reid Inlet (all Glacier Bay)

∞Today Shannon has decided to celebrate my birthday (actually 6/24) as it is our last night together on this trip. We part ways tomorrow after a truly exceptional time together, it couldn’t have gone more compatibly, for which we are all thankful. Shannon and David need to get back home to Bellevue by mid-July, and we are staying in Alaska until approximately mid-July, so they are starting their trek south tomorrow and we are staying in Glacier Bay until June 20^th. Tomorrow is also the day we pick up John’s parents, John and Dianne, along with our daughter, Jennifer and her fiancé Spencer for a one week stay.

∞We all had great plans to get up at 6AM today and go wildlife viewing in the whaler with a cup of coffee. I am the only one up as my body clock is somehow set to wake up every day at 4:30 Alaska time. I eventually get up around 5AM which I actually like, drink my coffee and read or write, and have my quiet time.

∞After a quick trip around our lagoon and no sighting of Mr. Bear from last night, we pulled anchor around 8:30AM for the trek up to Margerie Glacier and sightseeing along the way. Our first wildlife viewing spot was a place called Gloomy Knob, a barren set of peaks upon which we spotted many mountain goats including Mamas and Babies, so cute! They populate these barren peaks because the wolves don’t dare go onto the cliffs so they are safe there. We watched them for about 20 minutes, took pictures then went on to the next stop behind an set of islands where there was a wash from the mountains and a GIANT Grizzly wandered out of the brush. He was massive and gorgeous and seemed to be on patrol of his beach. We watched him walk one direction for 10 minutes then turn around and walk back, and then do it again.

∞The weather was beautiful all day today and on all sides of us we had glaciers that flowed all the way to the sea, surrounded by snowcapped peaks, hills of lush green scrub almost chartreuse in color, blue skies dotted with fluffy clouds, dramatic carved out hillsides in varying shades of brown, gray, and black, and the water was sea foam green with the glacial minerals and silt, but sadly my camera just couldn’t seem to capture all the colors of the day so imagine this palette when looking at my pictures. I will need to correct them in photoshop when I get home.

∞As we approached the end of Tarr Inlet, home to the Margerie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier, the water began being dotted with small chunks of ice, increasing the closer we got to the head of the inlet. A lot of the glacial ice came in interesting shapes, they looked like birds or animals, or just sculptures. Lots of the icebergs were full of the dirt and rocks that they dragged down the mountain with them too. The rangers told us the ice calving off today is 200 years old, that’s how long it takes to move from the top of the mountain to the sea. There are many glaciers in Glacier Bay but Margerie Glacier is the quintessential postcard worthy glacier and it is also the most active in terms of calving. The Grand Pacific Glacier looks like a pile of rocks because basically it is just that, with a glacier hiding underneath. It’s picked up so much soil along its path that it is covered in dirt and debris. The ice chunks kept increasing in size and quantity as we got closer to the glaciers which are side by side at 90 degree angles to one another (one is at the very end of the inlet and the other is on one side of the end). Anyway, a Celebrity monster cruise ship was just finishing up posing by Margerie with only one other boat waiting ahead of us. After both left we had the entire bay and glaciers to ourselves. At first we turned off the engines and just listened to the glaciers as they are continually cracking and popping at times sounding as loud as dynamite. Sometimes it results in a wall of ice crashing into the sea and other times there is no evidence of anything, just the sound. Shannon and I got into our respective tenders and took a ton of pictures of the boats in front of the glacier, then took turns taking pictures of each couple on their boat. Then, most importantly, we fished out glacial ice chunks from the water for our evening cocktails! We were so fortunate to have a mostly sunny and warm day (relatively speaking, we are in Alaska after all) for glacier viewing. It was pretty spectacular. We eventually had to say goodbye to the glaciers and make our way back out of the inlet to find shelter in another cove because it is just too deep to anchor in the Tarr Inlet and quite frankly even if we could, it would be a restless sleep with the glacier noise going on all night, it makes you jump out of your seat when the loud pops happen! I know this post is a very long read and I apologize, but this was probably the best day of our trip so far. A day of firsts….I have never seen mountain goats in the wild, nor have I seen as big of a grizzly in the wild, never have I experienced calving, cracking, creaking massive glaciers that are a mile or two wide, and never have I had a cocktail with 200 year old ice!