On Wednesday, the last activity at Glacier Bay National Park’s Bartlett Cove was a polar plunge for any cruise passenger who was brave enough to do it. I wasn’t so brave but Stephanie was one of 6 who took the challenge. Donning swimsuits and life jackets, those hardy folks jumped off a floating dock, then just as quickly got back out.
We started underway again and had another delicious dinner onboard. Mine was halibut with a spinach and strawberry salad, plus dessert of lemon meringue pie. After dinner the two naturalists briefed us on what would be happening the next day, then we went to bed.
I’ve forgotten to mention previously: the cabin toilets use salt water to flush, taken from water around the ship. At night, if we don’t turn on the bathroom light, we can see the toilet water sparkle with bioluminescence when we flush. It’s pretty fun to watch.
Thursday morning we arrived in Juneau just before breakfast. The weather was dry and relatively calm. There were only two giant cruise ships that had followed us into port (not many) so we looked forward to our activities. Our boat docked close to downtown. After breakfast, we left the ship and walked to a waiting bus that took us to Mendenhall Glacier National Park, about 30 minutes outside Juneau.
At the park Stephanie and I wanted to see birds and other wildlife, so we walked along a boardwalk path that crossed a creek and pond. As we approached the creek, we saw a black furry head that turned out to be one of three small black bear cubs and their mother. They were in the woods maybe 50 feet away from the boardwalk. The mother immediately signaled her cubs to climb a tall deciduous tree while she looked nervous at the bottom, standing guard. They climbed away to the top and other people joined us looking at them from the boardwalk. Stephanie and I backed up to lessen the pressure on the mother and we watched from a distance. In a few minutes, while the cubs remained high in the tree, the mother bear returned to grazing grass near the creek and boardwalk. Stephanie and I took another path away from the bears.
We walked along some other paths toward the glacier and visitor center, enjoying the views and birds. After about 90 minutes at the park, we reboarded our bus to return to town.
Our next stop was the Alaskan History Museum. We took in the exhibits for the next hour or so, then walked to the ship in the rain. Back onboard, we made ourselves sandwiches from ingredients laid out on the lounge’s bar. Later in the afternoon, one of the naturalists gave a short presentation in the lounge about the salmon life cycle and strategies the bears use to catch them.
Friday was our day to visit Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm, two long fjords with glaciers at the end. Thursday night, we had anchored near the opening of the two fjords. It was a quiet and calm night without the sound of the ship’s engines, little wind and no movement. The deckhands and captain raised the anchor early, before 6 a.m., but Stephanie and I were already up, looking for birds and animals along the shore, so we watched the excitement of raising the anchor too. Then we hung out in the bridge for a while after the ship got underway.
As we progressed in the narrow fjord of Tracy Arm, its dramatic rock walls got closer together and we saw more small ice bergs and pieces along the way. It was beautiful. We couldn’t go its entire length to the glacier due to the large amount of ice in the passage, but we admired the beautiful scenery and all the ice as the ship turned around and went back the way it came.
We were eating lunch as we entered Endicott Arm but were interrupted by two exciting wildlife sightings: a pod of more than 6 orcas swimming by and then two moose standing on a grassy point. Both were unusual and we felt lucky to see them.
Endicott Arm was wider than Tracy Arm, without so much floating ice, so we were able to reach the end and view the Dawes Glacier, which was magnificent. We took a ride in the hard bottom pontoon boat to get up close to the glacier, seeing and hearing the glacier calve smaller pieces off. The calving looked like an explosion of snow and ice, creating a loud boom and large swells. We were far enough away to stay out of the danger zone and the calving was exciting.
After returning us to the ship, the deckhands went back out on their own in the small boat to collect a piece of ice, “a bergy bit,” from the water. They then challenged us to guess when it would melt and write down our guesses, for a prize to whoever was closest.
Dinner was delicious as usual and I enjoyed a salad, scallops and cheesecake. We went to bed while the ship made its way to Saturday’s starting location further south.
Early Saturday morning, the ship dropped anchor in a place called Ideal Cove, a small protected bay. After breakfast we had the choice of going on a hike or out in kayaks. Stephanie and I chose to kayak in the cove and we put our rain gear on. Two deckhands helped us don life jackets and get in the double kayak on a platform on the back of the ship. We were pushed off the platform and free to paddle around anywhere within sight of the boat. We did a loop around the cove in calm water, looking for wildlife, while it drizzled lightly.
After lunch and a little nap, we all got into three jet boats that had arrived at our ship and were tied up at the back. The jet boats sped us to the LeConte Glacier, which is not far from Petersburg. It’s a fast moving glacier, progressing forward 75 feet per day. We saw lots of beautiful blue ice bergs that had calved from the glacier and gotten stuck in a shallow place at the mouth of the fjord and then the glacier itself, which is 2000 feet high at the end. There were also quite a few seals on ice bergs in the fjord, a place where orcas don’t go so the seals feel safe to have pups there. The jet boat tour took about 90 minutes, after which they brought us back to the boat.
During dinner on the boat, the Baranof Dream transited through a narrow channel between two islands, starting near the city of Petersburg. We benefited from a couple hours of cell phone connectivity while passing by Petersburg. My salmon dinner ended with chocolate mousse, and everything was very tasty. After dinner, a briefing by the naturalists gave us a preview of the next day’s activities. Then we went to bed.
Lori's Travels 