Glacier Bay

---

Geo: 58.8217, -136.815

Our last two days on the ship were spent at sea…kind of. We spent Saturday cruising through Glacier Bay National Park, and on Sunday afternoon passed through College Fjord for "scenic cruising." What this really meant is that at both places we traveled slowly and lingered at many glaciers. Glacier Bay was declared a protected area back in the 20's, but didn't become until a full-blown National Park until 1980. See my comments above. The place is IMMENSE, covering more than 5,000 square miles. Ironically there is a NPS Visitor Center, but it is near a very remote town, only reachable by boat or plane, so anyone wanting to go there really has to WANT to go there. The majority of people visiting the park do so on cruise ships, but for even that, the numbers are somewhat artificially low. The Park Service issues special permits for ships and only allows large ships in on certain days, and usually only one but never more than two at a time. At this time, only Princess and Holland America have agreements with NPS to access the park, so all the other cruise lines skirt the exterior of the park – which is still amazingly beautiful – but cannot enter or access the glaciers. There are hundreds of fjords and inlets here, and an uncountable (for me) number of glaciers. Here is where you usually see the pictures of icebergs calving into the sea. Early on Saturday morning, an NPS boat pulled alongside and three rangers boarded. Throughout the cruise, they provided commentary on what we were seeing and provided flora and fauna lectures. One of the rangers was also devoted to the kids program, and they had their own special Junior Ranger program for the afternoon. As part of the agreement with NPS, any ships entering the park have to suspend “normal activities” on board, which means the boutiques, casino, game rooms, pools, etc. are all closed. We thought this was a great mandate.

It rained or misted during most of the morning, yet it was still an experience none of us will forget. We'd pull up along immense glaciers, with the captain getting as close as possible, and then turn the ship slowly so everyone on all decks could see. The sea was full of newly calved icebergs and the rangers pointed out wildlife as they saw it. As the commentary was piped through the ship and on the TV, we were able to watch from our deck and hear everything. It also allowed us to keep retreating inside the room to get warm, as it was barely above freezing outside.

---