So this is what heaven looks like!
Maybe it was the early morning covered in wispy clouds that rendered Alaska's Glacier Bay a place of wonder;
I should be this beautiful when I'm older than time.
or perhaps it was the enormous snow-capped mountains that abruptly emerged from the icy waters like lumbering elephants that took my breath away.
Glacier Bay's Johns Hopkins Glacier is one of the few glaciers not receding.
Certainly the glaciers, insinuating themselves into the raw landscape with a cold, icy resolve, hinted at the eons of time they’d devoted to sculpting this primordial place. The marine wilderness felt holy, shrouded in so much mystery and beauty:
As the sun gained a foothold in this icy world, the clouds retreated to an immense sky.
a serene sky as big as any dreams for tomorrow;
Glacier Bay put on her best attire in anticipation of our arrival.
velvety water the color of magic;
Did you notice the small boat at 4 o'clock?
solitude as pure as the cool arctic air.
It didn't take long for Glacier Bay to swallow this cruise ship whole.
Civilization was notably absent; only two cruise ships a day are allowed passage into Glacier National Bay Wilderness. Federally authorized subsistence hunting or fishing is prohibited on any of the lands or waters in Glacier Bay National Park; and only limited State-of-Alaska-authorized subsistence/personal use fishing occurs within the 2.7 million acres of wilderness wonderland.
Margerie Glacier, a mile wide and 21 miles in length, is just one of over a 1,000 glaciers in Glacier Bay.
According to our park rangers, this pristine bay was a river of ice less than 250 years ago, before the glaciers recoiled 55 miles into the interior. Life starts from scratch in this primitive place, imparting lessons on resiliency and adaptability.
Nobody was sleeping through this lecture!
Nobody was sleeping through this lecture!
80% of the visitors to Glacier Bay arrive by cruise ship. Next time a smaller water craft for me.
It was all hands on deck, including several park rangers who’d climbed aboard our cruise ship at Bartlett Cove, as we sailed into the world’s largest internationally protected Biosphere Reserve (3.3 million acres of terrain along Alaska’s Inside Passage). For the next five hours, one ranger or another shared information (via the ship’s intercom and via smaller presentations) about this World Heritage Site.
Shrouded in mystery, this remnant from the last Ice Age speaks to the power and beauty of the planet.
I simply marveled at the wonder of it all; the magnitude, the mystery, the isolation. An indescribable sense of the unknown pervades the landscape, so much of the vast wilderness remote, inaccessible, and uncharted; thankfully, just the way the National Park Service intends to keep it.
Cruising Glacier Bay, I felt a part of something much larger, something magnificent.
I lamented the fact there are so few places left in the world truly untouched by man;
Shoulda, coulda, woulda been a park ranger if I'd know this would be my daily commute.
and recognized that there are even fewer places on this planet that have touched my soul like Alaska's Glacier Bay.
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