September 12, 2017
This is by far the highlight destination for any cruise to Alaska if you are lucky to see it in good weather like us. We were blown away with one of the few days where the weather was absolutely perfect with crystal clear blue skies. It is a remote wilderness preserve that can only be reached by seaplane or ship. Glacier Bay National Park encompasses a marine wilderness with glaciers, fjords, mountain ranges and ocean coastline. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is a vast area of southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage, a coastal route plied by cruise ships and other vessels. Stretching north of the town of Gustavus, the bay is flanked by high peaks, including Mount Fairweather,advancing and retreating glaciers like the huge Grand Pacific Glacier. Bartlett Cove is the park headquarters and entrance starting point for forest and riverside trails.
Wildlife sightings off in the distance spotted from the ship included humpback whales spouting blowhole mist as moments later tail flukes rose, mountain goats placing
strong footholds on high rugged mountains peak, occasional shorebirds
and a rare bald eagle feeding on fish. Otherwise
the rugged mountain range appeared sparse of wildlife visible to the naked eye otherwise, However park rangers and field study naturalist have seen small and large mammals in the lower alpine forests surrounding Glacier Bay below the rugged peaks.
Wild, Resilient, and Sacred
From the bottom of the deepest glacial fiord to the summit of its highest peak, Glacier Bay encompasses some of our continent's most amazing scenery and wilderness. It is a land reborn, a world returning to life, a living lesson in resilience. If ever we needed a place to intrigue and inspire us, this is it. Glacier Bay is a homeland, a living laboratory, a national park, a designated wilderness, a biosphere reserve, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's a marine park, where great adventure awaits kayakers with backcountry permits to explore into inlets, coves and hideaway harbors in the entrance to the Bay. It's also a land park, with its snow-capped mountains, spectacular glaciers, and emerald–green forests.
Between July 1-Oct 1 only cruise ships are allowed in the upbay channel inlets. Private vessels and kayaks are restricted due to navigational hazards. Icebergs break free from the mouth of glaciers licking the sea, explode ice particles and float like marshmallows within minutes as tidal waters pack in swells.
Two park rangers were brought out by a national park vessel from Bartlett Cove (the entrance to Glacier Bay) to transfer aboard the cruise ship. They each had to climb a rope ladder at 6:00 a.m. lowered over the side of the ship in order to get on board as interpretative naturalists for the day. What national park ranger wouldn’t pass up that opportunity and a free lunch on a cruise ship for a day of work? Climbing up a rope ladder meant also climbing down a ladder for a return pickup later in the day. How cool is that as part of a Glacier Bay National Park ranger’s job huh.
The captain of the Eurodam navigated the ship sixty-five miles up the West Arm of Glacier Bay into two inlets for spectacular scenic views of glacial movement. Passengers stood in awe watching the Margerie Glacier and the John Hopkins Glacier gigantic tongues of ice each stretch out to lick the sea.
We all waited and watched up on deck in anticipation for glacier crevasses to snap and pop. Suddenly, a split, crack, crash, the caving of massive ice chunks broke loose thundering into the icy waters
Hundreds of harbor seal pups had just been born over the late weeks in August on the John Hopkins Glacier. Some pups were seen floating on small icebergs. The weather was incredibly breathtaking with its sunny clear blue skies and white cumulous puffy clouds above the rugged snow packed peaks. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day.
The scenery of snow-capped mountains on the Fairweather Range, the low line forests, tributary inlets, coves and small islands along the narrow channel of the upbay and downbay of Glacier Bay are indeed something truly beautiful and inspiring to behold.
As the ship slowly turned to head back down the long West Arm of Glacier Bay, off in the distance my camera caught a glimpse of remains of the Grand Pacific Glacier, which three hundred years ago once covered the 65-mile fiord stretch deep in thousands of feet of ice before its dynamic glacial movement filled Glacier Bay. It stood like a disappearing dinosaur struggling for its last breath in the tar pits.
There was a feeling of sadness in my heart and I could almost hear the echo of its moans and groans. How could something so grand for centuries as a monument of ice have advanced and retreated on our planet, faster than the many glaciers that once reigned during the Ice Age Period?
Then I looked out on Glacier Bay and all its beauty as the sun glistened off its water and I understood. There is a purpose and a plan in all things that unfold in life…Birth, Death, and Rebirth is Life. The song of the Grand Pacific Glacier’s snow-packed ice gave rise to the waters of Glacier Bay. In the tidal water changes I knew she had been reborn and I could hear her singing and lapping in the wind.
Glacier Bay can be best summed up as:
A place Tlingit elders told of an ancestral homeland covered once in ice. For the Tlingit, Glacier Bay is woven into the tapestry of their lives as native people have lived in surrounding forest settlements for thousands of years.
A place wild, resilient, sacred
A place that offers human solitude and a remote wilderness that is rapidly
disappearing in today's world.
A place of hope--for the continued wisdom, restraint, and humility
to preserve ... a sample of wild America, the world as it was.
A place that is part of one of the largest internationally protected Biosphere Reserves in the world, and recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site (UNESCO)
A place of awe and wonder for one’s bucket list to must see in his or her lifetime
Avoiding the souvenir shops along the waterfront pier and Main Street we opted to do a self-guided walk about on our own to see the State Capital building. 
Now a free-spirited state capital, Juneau tends to be the perfect base for a journey into the gorgeous Alaskan wilderness, whether it's for fishing, kayaking, and dog sledding in the National Parks, whale-watching at Icy Strait, or glacier hiking at the Juneau Ice field. However, the only way to get to Juneau is by plane, ferry or ship, there are no roads leading to this coastal port town. Everything comes by a barge or ferry so cargo containers line the pier.
