Grizzlies & Elves

 

This type of view made Glacier Bay worth the trek.

For the first 3 days we edged up North to enjoy the views from lovely coves and to make a glacier cruise easier. There were typically 2 to 5 other lovely, large boats sharing each cove with us. Most boat names we recognized from the trip up--all of us racing to meet our allotted days.

When we were as far North as we could safely anchor, we decided it was time to see what all the excitement was about. Instead of taking our RIB out to get to the main attractions faster, we opted to see the main attractions all in one day. Taking the RIB would have been hours of enduring the cold wind in our faces. So, this entailed a long, 10-hour day of cruising. We passed, without stopping, four inlets which ended in glaciers. They were somewhat easy to see as we slowly floated by because the inlets are about a mile wide each. Our binoculars were always at the ready. There was always an incredibly beautiful view that changed each mile or so as new vistas came into view.

Nice glacier and a classic, typical view.

The John Hopkins Glacier was as far we went. Photos in 2-D just can’t express the large scale. You sense the power of the frozen, moving river. It takes your breath away. The blue, white, and rich dirt brown of the thick glaciers as well as the teal and green waters are hard to capture. 

John Hopkins Glacier (1 mile wide and 250 feet deep) and vicinity:

Enter in occasional orca whale sightings (which we hadn’t seen yet in the trip North), many dozens of buoyant sea otters, and silvery salmon leaping a couple of feet out of the water -- all of which kept our eyes open and binoculars at the ready. 

The layers of colors show the progression of glacier retreat. The closest, greenest areas have the most plant growth. 

I learned that when Glacier Bay was first designated as a national reserve, the glaciers were much longer. Most poured out past their inlets into the large bay. Now, all the glaciers have melted back into their inlets. A couple still are calving into salt water, like the one we saw at John Hopkins Inlet. The glaciers still are spectacular, and you can see them from the water, but the founders of the park did not expect the scenic views to change so dramatically.(1)

We saw the allowed 2 cruise ships and their routes each day.(2) Based on this, I think a cruise ship is a good way to see the glaciers. You can also make your way to park headquarters and see them from a sturdy tourist day-boat. (3)

Our last ancorage was probably the best because we saw a black bear, a grizzly bear, and a wolf!

 

After Glacier Bay, we opted to go a little further West to the small village of Elfin Cove. It's famous for its boardwalks, in place of roads, and as a major fishing lodge destination. It's just so darn cute as well. There are a few garden elves here and there, but we didn’t see any real ones. Unless elves are men, 25-75 years old, wearing camouflage jackets and wet gear. That's all you see. 

View from Elfin Cove boardwalk.

We took the RIB out with a fishing pole and Mike’s now-favorite lure and caught 2  salmon in about 2 minutes. With no camo! We also were surprised to see beautifully rugged stone arches and caves in the area. 

Natural arch at the fishing grounds. In the distance, behind the arch is another glacier. We also were surrounded by sea lions and humpbacks.

The small islands near Elfin Cove were so scraggly. There were shallow caves and fissures. The trees were growing directly on the rock. 

Next, we retraced our steps and anchored 2 nights at Funter Bay--a good midpoint on the way back to Juneau. Here’s Mike’s drone footage of the first evening:

The next afternoon we experienced our first rain and wind storm. As the wind picked up and waves wrapped around into the large bay, we didn't like the way it tossed around our RIB, so we pulled up anchor and cruised across the broad bay to a public floating dock. 

Just as we got comfy, the wind changed direction and waves started hitting us broadside which is very uncomfortable -- and potentially dangerous for our tie-up. We donned our wet gear and took the RIB to scout out another solution. 

We didn’t like the possible anchorages but we thought the other public dock on the opposite side of the bay was not perfect but calmer. Back we sped to the tug, wet, but relieved to have a solution. Before we hastily took off in the tug, I noticed one of our three lines was undone and another was one loose loop from becoming undone! 

I stayed in the rain on the back bench in my wet gear for the putt over to the dock. It was kind of fun. This California gal likes weather--I do! We docked without drama at the third spot of the day. Within about an hour we noticed that the wind was dying down. By evening, the seas were flat again. 

Did we have elves as stowaways, untying my lines? We may never know. But I learned that we need to use different knots in stormy weather. 

FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS

(1) Actually, I read that the original purpose of creating a national reserve was to keep the land a great public place for hunting, producing timber, and tourism. It was much later that Glacier Bay became a National Park and hunting, etc. became limited. 

(2) Now, 95% of the people who enter Glacier Bay come via cruise ship. 

(3) The hard part is getting to Glacier Bay. You have to take an infrequent Alaska ferry from a large town like Juneau and stay at least over night. Or, arrive via seaplane. There is a National  Parks lodge at headquarters with a restaurant but it’s nothing as nice as you might see in Yosemite or Yellowstone. We saw it and you would need to keep your quality expectations in check.

Half Way or Finished

The view from my kayak on day 2 in Glacier Bay. The arrow points to little Unwine’d at anchorage.

Okay, drumroll and hit the high hat! We made it to Glacier Bay! Call it achieving our goal or finishing our objective, if you like. But what a great feeling it was to cross the park boundary, surrounded by towering, snow-capped peaks, calm waters, watchful cute gazes of sea otters, and a pod of orcas, skimming the water. 

Now we are halfway, geographically, and have about two months to make it back to Decourcy Island. We made it here in a month, with conditions that couldn’t have been better. 

Boating miles: 1072 (1)

Boating hours: 143 

Since my last travelogue, we stopped in urban-like Juneau, spent 3 nights in 2 different quiet coves, and then spent one night in small town Hoonah. 

In case you haven’t seen Mike’s social media posts, here are some highlights:

Mike cleaned the two salmon we (finally) caught outside of Funter Bay. 

“You have to make do on a boat,” they say. Mike made me a chocolate cake for my birthday with our BBQ. Who knew you could do that?!

The top of the marina ramp to colorful, laid-back Hoonah.

Here’s our first view of Glacier Bay National Park: 

It was a clear and comfortable day when we arrived in Glacier Bay, so we took turns sitting on the front. Those are the snow-capped mountains in the background. (2) 

After checking in with the park ranger, we opted to hike the raised boardwalk trail through the 10-shades-of-green temperate rainforest that arrives at this pond. It’s been weeks since have taken a hike. (3) 

We’ve noticed so many more sea otters up here. We actually are seeing “rafts” of adorable otters in these waters—dozens of otters hanging out together. They have light colored furry faces, dark eyes, dark nose and little dark mouth like a stuffed animal. They float on their back like a boat with their too-large-looking pawed flippers sticking straight up. Many of them are carrying pups, it seems to us:

After a month of scanning the shores with hours upon hours on the water, we spotted a bear! 

Good night to you all from our anchorage tonight. We haven’t figured out yet if it actually gets dark at some point. We’ve seen it light enough to see by 3:00 a.m.

FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS

(1) This is close to the same driving distance as driving down California on Highway 5, from the Oregon border to the Mexico border. Or, driving from New York City to Orlando, Florida. But, our average speed was 7.5 MPH. 

(2) Glacier Bay National Park is slightly smaller than the size of Connecticut. In addition to the waterways and glaciers you can see from the water, it includes the surrounding forests. The Glacier Bay waterway is about the same distance (65 miles), South to North, as San Francisco Bay (60 miles). 

(3) There are many regulations in Glacier Bay National Park. They only have 25 private boats in a day—total. And there are only two cruise ships that come in a day. There was no one sharing our cove the first night. There are areas that are always restricted due to active whale habitat and others that are only available to non-motorized vessels, e.g. kayaks. We had to attend an orientation at the park headquarters before motoring upward.

Red, White & Shades of Blue

 

A favorite iceberg in Le Conte Bay, AK.

Last week we started thinking, “Where will we be on the Fourth of July?” We know the route we are taking to Glacier Bay, basically. But there are options about which islands we go around, which of hundreds of coves we anchor in, and which towns we can stop in. 

Generally, we have been planning our days the night before. We learned what daily distance we are willing to go. We use various written guides and personal advice to pick the stop. We also pick optional coves along the way in case we need to duck out from the conditions. We haven't needed to yet, but it's there when we will need it. So far, we find that pushing off early in the morning gives us the smoothest conditions, but that isn't always the case, depending mostly on currents, which aren’t 100% predictable.

Back to the Fourth, we figured out that we will have left Ketchikan, spent one night anchoring in Vixen Cove, and would probably be in Wrangell. We looked online and learned that Wrangell’s Fourth is an old-fashioned, small-town celebration. Sounded like fun! We burned 2 nights in this working-class, one-hardware store town. 

First, we visited Petroglyph Beach State Park. There were many petroglyphs scattered on large, smooth rocks along the beach. Totally approachable. 

It was fun discovering the petroglyphs. We wanted to capture them. 

This was my favorite. Looks like a shorebird to me. 

These petroglpyhs were in these homeowners’ backyards. Can you imagine?!

We walked about a mile from the Petroglyph Park to downtown. The streets along the way were deserted. We rounded a corner and saw the whole town watching their parade. Zoom in and see it’s the local kids riding decorated ATVs.

After the parade and street food (hamburgers—like we found in all Alaskan towns) was the Logger Competition. What fun! Here was the chainsaw race. How fast could you cut a slice off the log with a 15lb. vibrating chainsaw?

Next was the ax race. These guys were trying to chop the log in half first. While balancing! The poor guy on the right, a fisherman, broke his first ax. He had no chance against the big guy in the middle who was a professional tree feller. 

After Wrangell, we moved West and North through Wrangell Narrows to the fishing-cannery town of Petersberg. We got advice that we should not miss Le Conte glacier, which was a one-hour ride from Petersberg in our fast RIB. So we stayed two nights in Petersberg, to do this. 

The ride over and down to Le Conte Bay was a bit challenging. The RIB takes a 1-2 foot chop and small white caps well, but let's just say it requires full concentration. 

As we approached the entrance we were so excited to see our first icebergs!

The approach to Le Conte Bay. Starting to carefully watch for submerged icebergs—like the first ones we see up ahead. 

As we rounded the corner in the bay, the temperature dropped perhaps 10 degrees F, and we began to see more bergs. We needed to round two curves in the fjord in order to get to the glacier. As we went deeper, the bergs grew to a slew of many baby bergs, which essentially blocked our way into going further. 

However, we thoroughly enjoyed the glacier-cut mountains and energetic waterfalls surrounding us on both sides and got to encounter approachable-sized icebergs up close. 

Lots of baby bergs. Lovely waterfall.

Mike had to have a close encounter with the cutest of baby bergs.

Every iceberg had a story. I imagine this one was a little on dirt. See the stripes on the right? It picked up dirt as it moved towards the ocean. One day, boom, it falls. Slowly melts. Turns on its side as weight redistributes. 

Every iceberg is a modern work of art. Some looked like this. The blues were out-of-this-world. 

I’ve heard that icebergs are beautiful, but seeing them in 3D is the only way to believe. Check this out:

After we left Wrangell early the next morning, it was grey out. We were surprised that we could see the actual Le Conte glacier from the main waterway on our way North. 

The Le Conte glacier on our way North. That’s it just right of center. 

Tracy Arm was a must-see recommendation from experienced boaters. We had no idea the sheer majesty of this amazing fjord. It was a 10-hour cruise to get there from Wrangell, but still on our way to Glacier Bay.

Here’s our home sweet home in Tracy Arm. We anchored 2 nights near the opening of the fjord. Mike played with his drone and got this pic.

We buddied up with a couple we met on another boat to explore the fjord together in our RIB. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to see the actual South Sawyer glacier, or if we’d be blocked by dangerous icebergs. 

The fjord zigged and zagged. After each turn was a new, incredible vista. The glacier cut walls were about 2000ft/600m at first. With each turn, they grew…to 3500ft/1000m and to 5000ft/1500m! It was like floating through Yosemite Valley, with one El Capitan after another. As we passed the rock faces the wind warmed, and after the next turn, it cooled back to glacier breezes. The valleys were lush with trees and unnamed waterfalls reached up and way back to distant peaks. 

After 1.5 hours we were rewarded with a clear vista of the South Sawyer Glacier. Being that this was a “minor” glacier, we didn’t expect the large scale. We appreciated the rich blue hues that are just hard to sufficiently describe. 

Here was the view of the whole glacier. 

Here’s a better close-up. I wish you could see the small grayish dots on the floating bergs. They’re seals. Dozens of cute seals.

Mike created a video story of this day. You don’t have to login or sign up. You can just click on the link. 

We’re at the same latitude now as Sitka. Hard to believe we’ve gotten here in 3 weeks. 

Next, we plan to spend a few days in quiet coves as we continue North. We’ll re-supply in Hoonah for our stay in Glacier Bay, which we may stay in for up to a week.

Boating miles: 946

Boating hours: 116