Tuesday, Aug. 16th - Glacier Bay National Park

Our last day in Gustavus was dedicated to the Glacier Bay day cruise. We woke for an early breakfast, checked out of the Annie Mae lodge and left our luggage there (they will bring it to us by the end of the day). We were then driven to the dock in Bartlett Cove, where we boarded the Baranoff Wind, concession of the national park and operated by Allen Marine. We left the dock at 7:30AM

The boat is fairly large (~150 passengers) with two inside levels and 3 outside decks. We spent most of the day on deck, watching the scenery or looking for wildlife (or both!). It was cloudy but no rain and reasonable visibility, although fog and clouds were hiding the higher elevations, so we couldn't see the picture-perfect scenery with snow-capped mountains. We could however see the bay and the surrounding shores, which were beautiful.

Debb, a National Park ranger was on the boat and narrated the tour most of the day, bringing our attention to what we're about to see, or to any wildlife sightings. She also provided some visual presentations you could watch if you want.

Immediately after leaving the dock we started to see sea otters floating leisurely on the water.

Before we reached the bird rookery on South Marble Island, she gave a good presentation on the different sea birds we are likely to see. So now I know how to tell a horned puffin from a tufted puffin.

On the island there is also a large colony of sea lions which were extremely vocal!

Throughout the sail Deb kept updating us where there is a good chance to see wildlife. And indeed just where she said we saw mountain goats up on the ridge.

The highlight was when we saw a mamma brown bear and her 3 grown cubs foraging not far from the shore! The boat slowed down so that we can take a good look and many photos J. These were our first brown bears in Alaska and we were very excited.

As we continued our trip up the bay, the crew provided lunch – excellent salmon chowder and sandwich packs.

Around mid-day we reached the John Hopkins glacier and spent a good hour in front of it (apparently it is preferred over Margerie glacier when the weather and ice conditions allow it).

This is one of the few advancing glaciers in the region. It is very active and the water in front of it were filled with large amounts of ice (the crew fished-out some ice fragments for the passengers to check out). We also witnessed several calving events while there.

There were supposed to be seal colonies on the ice but for some reason we couldn't see any.

Finally we departed and started the long way back. On the way we visited the Reid glacier which is smaller but beautiful as well.

Weather cleared up a bit on the way back and we even saw some patches of blue sky, or as one of the Alaskans called them 'cloud failure' (!!). So we were able to watch more of Glacier Bay beauty,

Further on the way back the boat picked up few kayakers and backpackers who'd done a multi-day trip in the wilderness. Boy did they look happy to see us!

In the last hour before reaching back to Bartlett Cove we spotted two humpback whales, as well as some glimpses of Orca. This caused a lot of excitement on the boat, and it was fun to see, but nothing like the whales we saw up close on the day before.

Just before arriving back at the dock the crew treated us with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies which were great.

At last we arrived to Bartlett Cove and were picked up by the Annie Mae van who took us directly to the tiny Gustavus air terminal. On the road from Bartlett Cove back to town we had another nice surprise when a big black bear crossed the road just in front of us! He quickly disappeared into the forest and we didn't have a chance to take photos but it was a great finish to our Glacier Bay adventure.

Overall we had great time on the boat and enjoyed our time in Glacier Bay and Gustavus. Mid-August is already considered 'end of season' there and we were told June and July typically have better weather and more action. Getting there takes time and staying there is not cheap but overall it's a great place to visit, especially if you are already in SE Alaska. I wouldn't call it 'must see' since you can have similar landscapes and experiences elsewhere in Alaska. But we're definitely happy we visited it.

In the terminal we checked in for our Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage via Juneau. It was cloudy when we departed Gustavus but once we reached Juneau clouds opened up and we could see the huge Mendenhall glacier from the air.

The flight from Juneau to Anchorage was actually the most scenic flight in our entire trip. Flying over the Wrangell St. Elias and later the Chugach mountains, we were able to see snowy peaks piercing the clouds and the huge glaciers and ice fields covering the mountains. This was truly awe inspiring.

We landed in Anchorage around 9PM. Weather was surprisingly nice, with scattered clouds and twilight sun. We picked up our rental car from Hertz (we were upgraded to a very nice VW Passat) and drove ~15 minutes to the My Place hotel where we would stay the night. The hotel is quite new, which is probably why we got an excellent deal for the room (compared to Anchorage summer rates). The hotel has a convenient midtown location, and our room was large and clean, and more than adequate for our short stay.

It was still light outside and we decided to go for a late dinner in the nearby Moose Tooth (5 minute drive), after reading so much about. It was after 10PM on a week night but the place was still very busy and we were asked to wait... but after 5 minutes we got our table. We really liked the atmosphere and the local crowd - definitely felt like an 'institution'. Food was OK, beer was good and a chocolate-cherries cheesecake we ordered for desert was excellent. Prices were totally reasonable for what we got.

Thus ended a very long day starting at the Glacier Bay dock and ending in the Moose Tooth! Tomorrow we start the 'land part' of our Alaska vacation.