Glacier Bay National Park
One photo will never tell the tale of our day. It reveals but a fragment in time. Words then must take up the slack but they too fall short. One must feel the heart race with excitement to understand.
Southeastern Alaska seems to always wrap herself in a misty robe during the hours when we are deepest in slumber. Slowly the ever brightening sky coaxes her awake but at first the edges are slightly out of focus, artistically soft. The contours of South Marble Island were rounded too but its sounds were like the bustle of a rush hour commute. Traffic came and went at all levels, from the water's edge to the tallest tree. Stout bodied Tufted Puffins leapt from the cliffs, short forelimbs pumping like the wings of a bee. Kittiwakes conversed in rhythmic three syllable words with everyone finishing the sentence for everyone else. Moaning and groaning, pushing and shoving, Steller sea lions piled together achieving their thigmotactic need.
Periods of calm, the serenity of sculpted mountains and still blue seas alternated all day with the intensity of exhilaration. Bear! The alarm cry rang out and all eyes jerked to follow the gesturing hand. Power rippling through its muscles passed in waves from huge humped shoulders to rapidly moving hind quarters as a brown bear bounded down the beach. Close behind, a larger bear pressed forward in hot pursuit. The distance closed. Would a battle ensue? Hypotheses were formulated as to the nature of the dispute. Could it be rejected courtship, a right of territory or a tough love act inviting an adolescent to move away from home? The race stopped as suddenly as it began and each turned their back to the other, intent then on prying over rocks and foraging in the intertidal zone, as oblivious of each other as they were to the fact that a ship full of people were only eighty-five yards away. And we were not the only witnesses to this act. A coyote watched from the edge of the grass, its attention given to the ursine action only momentarily for it too was in search of lunch. It turned and pounced after rodent prey.A static wall of ice two miles wide blocked our passage at the end of the bay, its rubble covered surface lending contrast to the clean blue face of neighboring Margerie Glacier. The glacier rumbled as it readjusted itself, inching downhill, pulled by gravity. And then it roared. Just a little at first but building in a magnificent crescendo to a thunder which echoed from the mountain tops. The face crumbled in front of our eyes. Apartment sized chunks ricocheted off others, fracturing and fragmenting into blocks or fine crushed ice flowing like a waterfall. As they dove into the milky gray water the splash shot upwards a hundred feet or more. And then came the wave. We swung our bow into its giant roll and felt the power of nature beneath our feet, rising and falling, the energy dispersed.
At the end of the day, to the woods we went for a quiet walk. Who should await us there but a mother moose and her long-legged awkward calf.
One photo will never tell the tale of our day. It reveals but a fragment in time. Words then must take up the slack but they too fall short. One must feel the heart race with excitement to understand.
Southeastern Alaska seems to always wrap herself in a misty robe during the hours when we are deepest in slumber. Slowly the ever brightening sky coaxes her awake but at first the edges are slightly out of focus, artistically soft. The contours of South Marble Island were rounded too but its sounds were like the bustle of a rush hour commute. Traffic came and went at all levels, from the water's edge to the tallest tree. Stout bodied Tufted Puffins leapt from the cliffs, short forelimbs pumping like the wings of a bee. Kittiwakes conversed in rhythmic three syllable words with everyone finishing the sentence for everyone else. Moaning and groaning, pushing and shoving, Steller sea lions piled together achieving their thigmotactic need.
Periods of calm, the serenity of sculpted mountains and still blue seas alternated all day with the intensity of exhilaration. Bear! The alarm cry rang out and all eyes jerked to follow the gesturing hand. Power rippling through its muscles passed in waves from huge humped shoulders to rapidly moving hind quarters as a brown bear bounded down the beach. Close behind, a larger bear pressed forward in hot pursuit. The distance closed. Would a battle ensue? Hypotheses were formulated as to the nature of the dispute. Could it be rejected courtship, a right of territory or a tough love act inviting an adolescent to move away from home? The race stopped as suddenly as it began and each turned their back to the other, intent then on prying over rocks and foraging in the intertidal zone, as oblivious of each other as they were to the fact that a ship full of people were only eighty-five yards away. And we were not the only witnesses to this act. A coyote watched from the edge of the grass, its attention given to the ursine action only momentarily for it too was in search of lunch. It turned and pounced after rodent prey.A static wall of ice two miles wide blocked our passage at the end of the bay, its rubble covered surface lending contrast to the clean blue face of neighboring Margerie Glacier. The glacier rumbled as it readjusted itself, inching downhill, pulled by gravity. And then it roared. Just a little at first but building in a magnificent crescendo to a thunder which echoed from the mountain tops. The face crumbled in front of our eyes. Apartment sized chunks ricocheted off others, fracturing and fragmenting into blocks or fine crushed ice flowing like a waterfall. As they dove into the milky gray water the splash shot upwards a hundred feet or more. And then came the wave. We swung our bow into its giant roll and felt the power of nature beneath our feet, rising and falling, the energy dispersed.
At the end of the day, to the woods we went for a quiet walk. Who should await us there but a mother moose and her long-legged awkward calf.
