As mentioned in the previous post, it was about 3 pm when we left Johns Hopkins Inlet in Glacier Bay National Park. However, that is approximately 60 miles from the entrance to the bay and we had to be out of the park by midnight. We would therefore not be stopping for any major off the ship activities this afternoon.
Wildlife viewing. Cruising directly down the bay did not mean NO activities. There would be several good opportunities to see wildlife. Most notably were Gloomy Knob and South Marble Island. There also might be the opportunity to see whales in the bay, which we did. However ships are strictly forbidden to go near the whales in Glacier Bay, so we were only able to see them from a distance.
Shown below is the gps track of our trip through the upper and middle portions of Glacier Bay. The yellow and red waypoints on the far left are the anchorage and moraine walk locations from the morning's activities just outside of Johns Hopkins Inlet. This is roughly where we were at 3 pm as we started our way back out of the park. The green waypoint just left of center is the location where we began to take the sunrise pictures, i.e. the beginning of the previous blog post. The red point in the center is Gloomy Knob. The red point in the lower right hand corner is South Marble Island..
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| Our gps track through upper and middle Glacier Bay. Gloomy Knob is the red point near the center. South Marble Island is the red point in the lower right hand corner. |
Gloomy Knob. The guides told us to be on the look out for mountain goats at Gloomy Knob. I had no idea where Gloomy Knob was, but figured we must be getting close when we pulled towards shore and began to slow down around 4:30 pm. The land (just rocky cliffs) were on the port side, so we began scanning the shore from our cabin.
We did not know what we were looking for, but soon spotted what looked like a mountain goat lounging on the cliffs.
We found out later that Gloomy Knob
is so named because it is a rock outcropping barren of vegetation
relative to the surrounding area. The name appears particularly
appropriate when seeing the spot in this aerial picture.
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| Mountain goat at Gloomy Knob |
I went running outside with camera in hand to see what I could see. Now that I knew more or less what to look for, I began to see lots of goats.
Most of them were munching away on what appeared to be quite meager vegetation.
Nearly all were in unbelievably steep locations. The goats, whose feet are well adapted to the rocky cliffs, spend most of their time on the steep cliffs to avoid their primary predators, bears and wolves.
The goat below in the close-up shot does not look in as precarious a spot until you see the overall location (next picture).
He must have worked hard to work his way down to that slightly more lush spot.
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| Wider view of the mountain goat in the picture above. How did he get there? |
We are fortunate to have seen as many goats as we did.
Apparently they often migrate in late summer to higher elevations to
take advantage of the alpine vegetation.
Other critters. Goats were not the only critters we saw here. We also saw a puffin, an eagle, and even a solitary sea otter.
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However, we still had miles to go so we quickly picked up speed and continued down the bay.
South Marble Island. Next "stop" (or should I say "slowdown") was South Marble Island. At a steady pace of 14 mph down the bay, we made it to South Marble Island just after 6 pm.
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| South Marble Island with gps track. Closest approach was about 0.1 miles. |
South Marble Island is a 3.75 sq mile island located in the central portion of Glacier Bay. Low cliffs and dense spruce forest dominate the western half of the island, but we were interested in the exposed rocky eastern shore.
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| Approaching South Marble Island from the north |
The eastern rocky cliffs are the summer home and nesting area for a variety of seabirds. The birds spend most of the year on the open ocean, but return to South Marble Island to nest and raise their chicks. The isolated island provides a safe place away from terrestrial predators and the unusual geography of the surrounding waters make them filled with fish,
What is the unusual geography? Sitakaday Narrows
Sitakaday Narrows, is a natural squeeze point near the entrance to Glacier Bay for all the marine waters that move out of the bay with the changing tides. As the tide retreats towards the mouth of the bay, the land squeezes the water and causes it to swirl together. In addition, this is the location (deeply under the water) of the remains of the moraine of the once-mighty Grand Pacific Glacier, the glacier which created all of Glacier Bay. Squeezed both vertically and laterally, the bay water becomes very turbulent with movement of the tides, stirring up nutrients and encouraging a heavy growth of phytoplankton. The massive blooms of phytoplankton feed the enormous schools of fish which in turn feed numerous larger creatures from birds to sea mammals.
Lots of birds. We saw large colonies of gulls, both herring gulls and glaucous winged gulls, as well as cormorants on the island.
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| A colony of gulls on the right and sea lions on the left |
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| Cormorants |
We also saw a variety of birds in the water such as common murre and pigeon guilllemots.
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| common murre |
Probably the most exciting birds to see were lots and lots of tufted puffins in the surrounding waters, although most were not very close to the ship.
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| tufted puffins |
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| This tufted puffin was a bit closer. |
We did not realize it until we got home, but we also saw the much rarer horned puffin.
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| horned puffin |
Sea Lions. South Marble Island also provides Steller Sea Lions with a safe place to relax.
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| Stellar sea lions |
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| More Stellar sea lions |
For the most part, the island draws bachelor sea lions that are unable to challenge males at nearby breeding islands located along the park's outer coast.
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| One of many disagreements which seemed to be going on among the sea lions |
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| Sea lions on one of the small rocky islands just south of South Marble Island, with Sitakaday Narrows in the distance |
Even at a reduced speed, we were quickly past the island. However, it was already past 6:30, so we immediately ran to dinner.
Visitor's Center. As long as this day had been, we were not finished yet. The crew announced that we would have time to dock at the Visitor's Center in Bartlett Cove and disembark from the ship before leaving the park.
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| Southern end of Glacier Bay |
The ship moved right along moving southward. I am guessing the tide must have been going out, since the gps track indicated the ship was going as fast as 18 mph through Sitakaday Narrows, the fastest speed I had seen on the trip so far. Whatever the reason, we made good time and arrived at the dock in Bartlett Cove a little after 8 pm.
We set out to see what there was to see.
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| Safari Endeavor at the public dock in Bartlett Cove. A portion of the Healing Totem Pole is in the picture on the right. Note the steep incline down to the dock on the left. We were about another hour or so until low tide. |
First up was the Healing Totem Pole. It is 20 feet tall and carved out of yellow cedar. As described in the NPS brochure, the features on the pole represent the Huna Tlingit’s tragic migration from their Glacier Bay
Homeland, a painful period of alienation, and more recent collaborative
efforts between the tribe and the NPS. The totem pole is a rather new feature, dedicated in August, 2018.
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| The Healing Totem Pole |
There was also a very interesting carving in a living tree It is apparently one of multiple Tlingit tree carvings in the park, but I could not find out anything else about it online. I also liked the hand carved Tlingit canoe, but I did not get a picture due to the rain and growing darkness.
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| Tlingit tree carving |
Whale Exhibit. However the most interesting thing to us was the whale exhibit.
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| Whale exhibit |
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| Story of Snow, the humpback whale in this exhibit |
The well known and much beloved humpback whale number 68, otherwise known as Snow, was struck and killed by a cruise ship in July, 2001. Following a long process, including work by many volunteers over the years, Snow's skeleton was put on permanent display in 2014.
It was incredible to see how large this was.
Interestingly the fins are essentially huge hands with finger bones. The whale does not use the fins for propulsion, but for scooping fish and other activities, hence their ability to maneuver in multiple directions. This is at least in part due to the fact that humpbacks evolved from land animals. Who knew!?
We had planned to walk to the Tribal House, but it was beginning to rain and I had forgotten to bring the rain shield for my camera. We were also getting tired since we had been up since O-dark-hundred (which is very early in Alaska!), so we walked back to the ship about 9. According to the gps track, the ship left the dock about 10, but I think I may have already been asleep by then.
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| The Frog beginning the trek back to the Endeavor |
This was definitely a day to remember forever The main attraction had been the fantastic scenery, but the wildlife sightings were great too. Here are our postings to iNaturalist for today.
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