GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK, Alaska

We spent the day cruising Glacier Bay National Park, one of the most spectacular places on earth, 3 million remote acres of uninhabited beauty. You can fly into Gustavus from Juneau and drive the 5 miles in to the visitors center and campground but beond that you'll need a kayak, some woollies and a tent. Most visitors observe the park from the comfort of one of the 139 cruise ships that cruise Glacier Bay every summer. We had the distinction of being the last boat of the 25-day season to see the Johns Hopkins Glacier, about 65 miles from the entrance of Glacier Bay and enroute passed Reid Glacier. Johns Hopkins inlet is closed to all boats until September 1 because it is a harbor seal nesting area in the summer (and one of only two advancing glaciers in the park). A host of seals were still in town sunbathing on floating chips from the glacier (see the little black specks in the photo), though most had already swam south to warmer waters.

250 years ago what is now Glacier Bay National Park was covered with glacial ice. The glacier had advanced so far that the Tlinglit who had been living in the bay were forced to move. The inlets present now were formed by this glacier and today there are only a dozen tidewater glaciers remaining in Glacier Bay. According to one of the Park Rangers who boarded our ship (via motorboat and exhilarating transfer) the enormous and accelerated glacial melting of the last few decades is a natural pattern of glacial activity and not an outcome of global climate change. The contact with saltwater is ultimately what causes the glacier to melt, not the temperature of the air. We spent a couple hours hovering about 1/4 mile from the face of John Hopkins Glacier on a sunny (for Alaska) day.

As we sadly sailed out of this otherworldly place a parade of orca and humpback whales dazzled us and punctuated a wondrous day on this magnificent planet with points of exclamation.