Glacier Bay Trip Report

Getting There

Most do visit via cruise ship, but Alaska Airlines flies into Gustavus (pronounced Goose TAY vus), a small town adjacent to the park headquarters and the Glacier Bay Lodge.  The Lodge is similar to other NP Lodges with basic/functional amenities and a restaurant for food. It’s pretty much only show in town, although I think there may be a couple other AirBnB or motel options further away.  The restaurant is understandably pricey, but with decent food and excellent service.  Arriving into Gustavus was easy enough and a bit humorous as they unloaded all the bags outside and it was a giant free for all.  Many of the passengers and their luggage got on a converted school bus for the 20 minute ride to the lodge.  Checking in was easy and there was actually functional wifi in the main building of the lodge.  However, leaving was a bit of a mess.  Getting to the airport was easy using the same school bus.  However, TSA, bag check, and boarding was a giant cluster.  It’s not really anyone’s fault, it’s just too small an “airport” in our opinion to justify a commercial flight. The tradeoff would be flying another bush/float plane into Gustavus or sticking with the cruise ship option.  Oh well, you’ve been warned.

Glaciers and

Wildlife

The lodge coordinates daily boat tours of Glacier Bay and they also offer guided kayak tours.  We had reserved a boat tour for our first full day in the park.  The boat tour was really well done.  There were probably 200 passengers, so it wasn’t a tiny ship.  It was smooth sailing up the bay and a nice, partly cloudy day.  The crew and park ranger on board were all super informative and good at spotting wildlife as we headed toward to main glaciers.  We saw humpback whales, orcas, eagles, puffins, lots of other bird varieties, some mountain goats, and even a big brown bear along the coast.  In fact, seeing the orcas where we did (so far up the bay), was such a surprise to the park ranger, when she saw it while commenting over the mic, she said “holy sh*t, there’s an orca.”  Everyone loved it.  When we got to Margerie Glacier, the captain stopped the boat’s engines so we could hear the sound of the glacier cracking and the sounds as they calved into the bay.  We saw a few chunks fall into the bay, but not much until a giant section of the glacier broke off and fell into the sea.  It was a biggie.  I didn’t get it on video, but the guy next to me (who was ironically from nearby Oceanside, CA) nailed it.  The ranger reminded us that the joy of experiencing such a cool visual phenomenon is tempered by the sadness of further melting of these glaciers.  All in all, the boat tour was great, and easily the best part of our visit to Glacier Bay.

Every Totem

Tells a Story

There is some unflattering history between the NPS and the native Alaskan tribes.  Tlingit clans lived in the Glacier Bay area for hundreds of years, prospering from the wealth of sea life.  We listened to a ranger talk one evening that filled in a lot of the historical details.  Evidently, when Glacier Bay was first named a National Monument in 1925, the NPS enforced restrictive federal laws that essentially made the area unlivable for the native clans.  Only recently, have they tried to make amends by allowing some harvest activities and partnering for education and celebration of Tlingit heritage.  The area around the lodge has many intricate totem poles and a large colorful tribal house.  We learned that the totem poles tell stories about the way of life of each of the local clans.  We’ll have to test our interpretation skills the next time we see a totem pole.