Cruising Glacier Bay In Alaska

Awe-inspiring. Stunning. Wondrous. Magnificent. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe Glacier Bay.

Did you know Glacier Bay is a national park? Further, it is a World Heritage Site, “the principal recognition given to natural and cultural areas of universal significance.” It can only be reached by boat or plane. When a cruise ship enters Glacier Bay they take on at least one Park Ranger, who gives a running commentary on what there is to see.

Obviously, there are glaciers. Since these touch water, they are all “Tidewater Glaciers.” The park includes around 12 that calve into the bay. Unfortunately, though we sat in front of a couple of them for half an hour or so, we didn’t get to see that spectacular phenomenon.

We saw birds and seals,

but otherwise, it was a landscape on a grandiose scale.

The mountains of the Fairweather Range are huge.

It’s hard to get a perspective on how truly monumental they are. We got a clue when we got close to one glacier, saw a cruise ship that was still a mile away from the glacier and it looked dwarfed, and were told we were still 7 miles away.

Wow.
As you can see, it was a big ship. It just looked small next to the glacier.

Glacier Bay is truly natural beauty on an awe-inspiring scale.

A Whale Of A Good Time!

Tuesday we went on a Whale Watching and Wildlife Quest. In a word, it was AWESOME.

We barely got out to see until there were Orca Whales diving around the boat. (Of course, we know Orca Whales are really dolphins, so why are they called whales?) The naturalist on board the boat declared they didn’t usually see Orcas, so we were quite fortunate.

Further out to sea, we saw humpback whales. LOTS of humpback whales.
There is a big difference between low and high tide, generally 15-25 feet. This activity stirs up the nutrients in the water. Also, there is a narrow channel that further compresses the food in one place, so the whales like to congregate there.
The only disappointment was none of the whales actually came up out of the water. We just saw a lot of backs and flukes.

We also saw an island positively covered with Stellar Seals on one end. Making lots of noise! On the same island, there were 2 eagles perched, one on a sign, and one on top of the hill.

It was so cool to see all these animals, and the scenery was breathtaking. Mountains and snow and glaciers and clear blue skies. Phenomenal.

It was hard to choose which pictures to use – all you had to do was snap the shutter and you were bound to get some beautiful photos. But most of them will have to wait. Internet service is mucho expensive on board and it takes a long time to load photos.

So more to come… but probably not until I’m home again!

Visiting Big Muskie And The Wilds

We’re back from our journey through Tennessee and Kentucky, on into West Virginia, and even Ohio. We had a fine visit with my dad, sister and her family. Saturday we all went to Cambridge, Ohio, to see The Wilds, a nearly 10,000-acre wildlife conservation center.

The Wilds was created from land donated by the America Electric Power’s Central Ohio Coal Company, which sounds very altruistic, but I suspect they got some tax advantages out of it, not to mention the fact they’d already mined it out. Now someone else has the job of finishing the reclamation of land ravaged by surface mining, and this wasn’t your typical operation. Not by a long shot!

After normal draglines and power shovels had removed as much coal as possible, the company decided to build a unique piece of equipment called Big Muskie, the world’s largest walking dragline. This is a picture of Big Muskie in operation. Note the size of the “normal” machine below, and pay special attention to the size of the bucket in relation to the rest of Big Muskie.

It took them nearly two years to build Big Muskie on-site. When they were done, they had a monster machine weighing 27 million pounds, or as much as 13,500 cars. It was as wide as an eight-lane highway, with a 220-cubic-yard bucket that could move 325 tons of dirt in a single bite. That’s the equivalent of a two-story house!

This humongous dragline could take about one bucket bite per minute, moving 39-million pounds of material per hour. During its operating years, Big Muskie moved more than 4.8 million cubic yards of earth, which is nearly twice that moved to create the 40-mile long Panama Canal.

Remember how small the bucket looked in comparison to the rest of the machine??? Take a gander at how HUGE it really is! And to give you a even better idea, check out Scott, Maria and Caleb standing inside this bucket…. Once Big Muskie did its job, and the land was donated to International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals, The Wilds was created. It’s the largest preserve in North America for threatened and endangered species.

Not only are they working to preserve animals, but have some special challenges in reclaiming the land. Big Muskie was just so huge and monstrously heavy, that it along with other heavy machinery, compacted the surface so tightly that tree roots cannot penetrate the soil in some areas. There is an experimental section with various species of trees growing to see which thrives best. They were planted 20 years ago, and have made very little progress.
Nevertheless, the land is lush with growth, and has several beautiful lakes made when digging brought water to the surface. It’s now not only a gorgeous scenic area, but home to several native animals, and endangered species from all over the world as well.

They have buses or “open air safari” vehicles available to take you on tours through the open-range animal areas. You enter through a locked gate system reminiscent of Jurassic Park. The guides make jokes about it, informing you there are NO dinosaurs in the park.

However, there are lots of other interesting animals, along with a Mid-Sized Carnivore Conservation Center, a stop with feeders for giraffes, and many separate enclosures for different species. Our guide was quite knowledgeable about the different animals, and we spent an enjoyable 2 ½ hours riding the bus through the preserve.

We’re a diverse group, but we ALL enjoyed the tour. We saw animals I’d never even heard of before. It was a great trip, and I’d recommend it to anyone who happens to be traveling in the area.

I shot a LOT of animals. With a camera, of course! To see a slideshow with pictures of most of the species we saw, go HERE. There’s about 4 screens worth of photos. Just click on the top left picture and a new box will pop up to show bigger pics.

Big Muskie, The Wilds & FamilyFun! What a trip!