Capturing the Moment

  Today we entered into familiar territory for me. We woke up this morning to the cool breeze created by a massive tidewater glacier called Margerie glacier. Glacier Bay National Park itself it massive, at 3.2 million acres. Numerous glaciers tumble out of the 15,000ft mountain range which make the park. As these glaciers recede, more and more water is left in the fjords for us to explore by ship. This is how most people visit this park, but we are a little different. We wanted to make it off the ship for some kayaking adventuring to get closer to the action. Even though I have been in this park many times, leading tours just like this, I had never done activities at this glacier. And I've definitely never done this with my family! So I was pretty excited. I jumped in the back of a tandem kayak and my wife and son sat in the front. We kayaked along incredible steep walls, with waterfalls coming off, and nesting sea birds calling to each other as we passed. As we got closer to the g...

Sitting on the edge The terminus of the now grounded Lamplugh  This hike is for the extremers, the 'go get em' bunch that doesn't mind some dizzying heights, near vertical scrambles, and some steep dropoffs. If that sounds like you then keep reading. If not then maybe check out a calmer post about my first visit to Glacier Bay National Park three years ago.   In the heart of Glacier Bay National Park there is Lamplugh Glacier. I have heard about the ridge hike which starts from the lookers left side of the glacier for years, but until recently I had never gotten a chance to tackle it myself. Last week I took a hard charging group of hikers from my boat, the Safari Quest, to see just how high we could make it, and what kind of views we could get. Human Totem Pole at the top    For parts of the hike there is a worn trail. The views of the glacier expanding below you, and of all the mountain range extending as far as you can see are more and more ...

Ice Moose  Moose are relative newcomers to Southeast Alaska. At least the ones that are here now. It is theorized that moose used to be here but went locally extinct, and recently a different subspecies of moose has moved in through the major river valleys like the Stikine near Petersburg and the Taku near Juneau. If you want to look deeper into the science and DNA research of our moose take a look at this interesting article from the Alaska Wildlife News .   The fact that they are just now slowly colonizing means seeing them on one of our trips is a rare experience. Even for us running the trips it may be a once a season kind of sighting. Up in Homer and Denali we encountered moose around every corner, but here it is a rare thing indeed. So you can imagine our surprise when two moose were spotted just above where we had anchored near Lamplugh Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. One took a stroll out onto some ice before calmly sitting down to take a rest.  C...

Stranded Berg   My last week in Alaska was a big one, including hunting bears, northern lights, and a trip into Glacier Bay National Park. The schedule that I came up with for the week was a little rigorous, taking us to six glaciers over the course of two days to maximize our chance of seeing calving and for different glacier activities. We first woke up at the beautiful Margerie Glacier and the almost all black face of the Grand Pacific Glacier. Little chunks were falling off but the real calving show came from the huge Johns Hopkins Glacier were we went next. Walking Amongst the Ice Fun with the Polar Plunge Dan exploring Lamplugh Glacier   After the amazing calving experience at Johns Hopkins we headed off to Lamplugh Glacier for some good ol' fashioned polar plunge fun into the icy waters. Feeling alive and refreshed from the sub 40 degree water we filled up on lunch and then headed out for hikes, shorewalks, kayaks, and skiff tours around the glacier. ...

2nd Mate Ross doing a headstand on a SUP   I have been to Glacier Bay National Park several times this summer aboard the Wilderness Explorer with Un-Cruise . But not until this past week did I arrive in the park to find it sunny and clear enough to see the tops of the snow covered mountains. When I did finally get a view of this I was blown away. The views went on forever. Massive ice fields feeding flowing glaciers, dipping all the way down into the calm waters make this like no other place I've seen. Add to the fact that we are on a very small cruise ship, only 74 passengers max, and we carry around a bunch of toys like kayaks, stand up paddle boards, and small skiffs to really explore the waterways in an intimate way. Lamplugh Glacier Sunny Glacier Bay National Park These pictures are just a few of the views that I could capture in between a busy day of getting the guests on all kinds of adventures off the boat. There are some pretty amazing national parks out th...