Happy St. Patty’s Day!
Side Trip, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska...
Today was the day I've been waiting for. Today I got out on a boat and saw a good bit of the park while helping on an oceanography survey. Park Rangers Bruno and Latendresse had a mission to take a scientific instrument that reads and records various data from the water in 7 different locations, and this required we sail up both arms of the Bay and back.
It's no wonder how this place got its name.
I was fortunate enough to see all types of wildlife, including harbor porpoises, sea otters, dozens of bird species, sea lions
and incredibly, we had a close encounter with a couple different pods of orcas. I didn't realize how rare this was until I got an e-mail from the killer whale biologist there asking if I could send some of the pictures I took that may show any markings because it's so unusual for them to be seen so much this time of year.
We saw them coming straight at us, so they killed the engine and just let them swim right by. These guys work on these waters every day, They have watched orcas chase sea lions right up on to the rocks, and they were still awed and appreciative. And that made me happy.
Wow, it's really beautiful there! I wish I could have seen an Orca!
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