Nobody was sleeping through this lecture!
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Maybe it was the early morning covered in wispy clouds that rendered Alaska's Glacier Bay a place of wonder; or perhaps it was the enormous snow-capped mountains that abruptly emerged from the icy waters like lumbering elephants that took my breath away. 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: a serene sky as big as any dreams for tomorrow; velvety water the color of magic; solitude as pure as the cool arctic air. 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. 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! 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. 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. I lamented the fact there are so few places left in the world truly untouched by man; 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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