Day 1
Gustavus / Reid Glacier
Embarking from Bartlett Cove, we enjoy beautiful vistas while cruising up the bay to Reid Glacier and its incredible wall of ice. After kayaking ashore, we hike onto the ice to hunt for unusual ice worms, learn about the ebb and flow of glaciers, and explore among the grounded icebergs. At day’s end we return to the welcoming warmth of the M/V Sea Wolf for a cup of hot chocolate or glass of wine and to savor a delicious meal (fresh seafood, of course!).
Day 2
Tarr Inlet / Margerie Glacier / Lamplough Glacier
We enter Tarr Inlet, where the Grand Pacific and Margerie glaciers cascade into the water, and enjoy a wonderful paddle along a sheer cliff with a kittiwake and puffin rookery. We also kayak in front of Margerie Glacier, with its 250-foot-high icewall, for the breathtaking experience of watching an active, calving glacier from a safe distance. A cruise past Bear Knob and Lamplough Glacier brings us to our anchorage.
Day 3
Muir Inlet / McBride Glacier
Making our way up Muir Inlet, the eastern arm of Glacier Bay, we set out for an amazing hike by the McBride Glacier, with a paddle up to either Riggs Glacier, or from Muir Glacier to Riggs Glacier. The shoreline here has a great variety of birds and it’s also possible to see bears, wolves, and moose.
Day 4
North Sandy Cove / South Marble Island / Dundas Bay
North Sandy Cove has a rich ecosystem that supports black bears, moose, and coyotes. We enjoy a morning paddle here and later kayak around Puffin Island, where we get a truly wondrous look at a vertical intertidal zone. Back on board, we cruise to South Marble Island to view a Steller sea lion haul-out and seabird nesting rookery. On our way up to beautiful Dundas Bay, we head to the beach to pick strawberries, learn about and taste native plants, and revel in the glorious flower-strewn meadows. Cow parsley, chocolate lily, yarrow, lupine, wild iris, lily of the valley, and Indian paintbrush are among the plants that brighten the splendid landscape here. Our anchorage tonight is in Dundas Bay.
Days 5-6
Dundas Bay / Whale Watching
Rarely visited Dundas Bay is a misty paradise of snow-dusted mountains, glacier-carved inlets (great for sea kayaking), and beautiful native plants in full summer bloom. Wildlife here includes sea and river otters, marmots, and moose. Birdlife abounds, from eagles to cormorants to cranes. We explore by skiff, then walk through Sitka spruce to a mature muskeg bog with orchids, insect-eating sundews, stunted spruce, hemlock, marsh marigolds, and violets. After a final morning of looking for humpback whales, we disembark at Gustavus on the afternoon of Day 6.
This is the Itinerary-at-a-Glance. For the complete trip description,
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