The West Arm – Glacier Bay

The daily cruise on the MV Fairweather II starts at 7:30 a.m. Most of the people on the cruise are tourists who fly into Gustavus or come in on the Alaska State Ferry. Many of them were from foreign countries here to enjoy our national treasure.

We left our boat anchored at Bartlett Cove and motored over in our dinghy and tied up at the dock. As we joined the other passengers boarding the boat we were still wearing our self-inflating floatation devises and the Park’s interpreter who was greeting guests sarcastically remarked, “Oh, aren’t we all ready and safe?” We both just smiled and got on the boat. That said, the people in front of us were all decked out in all of their brand new outdoor wear. They were probably from some warm environment and wanted look like they fit in. They had all the right stuff on. Now, don’t get me wrong, we understand wanting to fit in which is why we bought our Xtratuf boots during our last trip to Alaska. Xtratufs are said to be Juneau sneakers or in our case, Petersburg sneakers because that’s where we bought them. Everyone wears them up here. At the time I thought we would only wear them for a while and then they would be set aside, however, we have worn them at home and we have both worn them a lot up here this time. Our Xtratufs are insulated boots and on this trip any time my feet have been cold I put my Xtratufs on.

During the cruise we went up the east side of the bay, past South Marble Island, which is a haul-out area for Stellar Sea Lions as well as an Island Seabird Colony for dozens of bird species. As we slowly drifted by the island the interpreter identified several birds such as Tufted Puffins, Pelagic Cormorants, Oystercatchers, Glaucous-winged Gulls, Common Mergansers, and Marbled Murrelets . We also watched hundreds of sea lions congregated on two rocks.

As the cruise continued up the west arm of the bay the interpreter spoke about the geology of the bay and the other wildlife we might see and where we should look. It was low tide and the interpreter indicated that this would be a good time to see wildlife along the bank. A short time later, the captain of the boat came on the speaker and indicated there was a grizzly bear along the shore foraging for food. He slowed and eased the boat over to the shore close enough for us to watch and take pictures, but far enough that we did not bother the bear. The bear was working his way along the shoreline lifting huge rocks and eating small fish that are only exposed during low tide. A short distance down the shore, we saw another bear working the shoreline in the same manner with an entourage of sea gulls following behind waiting for their opportunity to get at whatever was under the rocks. In addition, while we were cruising we saw mountain goats high up on the cliffs, Humback Whales, Bald Eagles and a lot of sea otters floating in the bay.

During our cruise we saw the Rendu, Reid, and Lampugh Glaciers, but the most spectacular were the Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers. The Grand Pacific is a retreating glacier at the northernmost tip of the west arm. It is no longer a tidewater glacier, which means it has retreated enough that there is land between it and the shoreline. The Margerie Glacier, however, is a stable glacier, meaning it is growing enough each day to maintain its depth even though it loses ice into the water each day. It flows about 6 to 8 feet per day. It is a tidewater glacier and is spectacular. As we were viewing the glacier there were several occasions of calving ice dropping into the bay. Each time this happened it created a wave significant enough to impact the boat even though we were about a quarter of a mile away from the face of the glacier. We had an opportunity to get a great perspective of the size of the Margerie Glacier when we arrived to find a huge cruise ship drifting in front of it.

In all we spent eight hours on the cruise. While we could have done this trip on our own, we enjoyed the cruise because we learned more about what species of birds and animals that live in Glacier Bay and it was much more relaxing for us because we could get up and walk around. It also seemed like they fed us all day long.