Alaska's Inside Passage
Grand Spectacles
Small Delights
Ancient Traditions
and Newfound Freedoms
A journey where travelers can retrace prospectors' gilded trail
or join in native dances.
Some 1,000 islands and a narrow strip of coastal mainland comprise this region.
Virtually roadless, waterways serve as highways.
The Inside Passage,
a 600-mile saltwater route joining southeast Alaska's waterfront communities,
has long been the way north.
It's sheltered waters protecting the dreams of ancient mariners and modern explorers.
Our journey of discovery begins in Vancouver, Canada.
A million and a half people live here,
surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery Canada has to offer.
The
Saltwater City by early Chinese immigrants, Vancouver faces the Pacific Ocean.
Like a schooner under full sail, Canada place romances the eye with its sweeping white lines.
A world-class trade and convention center, it was built for Expo 86, a world's fair.
This is a mecca for commerce and a major cruise ship port.
Each summer, thousands of people board luxury liners bound for Alaska by way of the famed Inside Passage.
Cruising north, our ports of call are Ketchikan, Wrangel and Petersburg,
Sitka by the Sea, Juneau, Alaska's capital, Haines, and lastly, Skagway.
First port of call, Ketchikan.
Alaskans call Ketchikan the first city, because it is here that northbound travelers enjoy their first glimpse of frontier life.
Famous for its rain, Ketchikan receives an average 162 inches of liquid sunshine a year.
Come enjoy the rain and some of the best wilderness you've ever seen in your life.
Local residents make light of the downpour, boasting they don't tan, they rust.
Rain or shine, there's plenty to see and do.
Ketchikan is a tourist's potpourri.
Literally a city in the clouds, much of Ketchikan clings to the steep slopes of Deer Mountain.
Weathered stairs and motorized trams lead almost 100 feet up to residential neighborhoods.
From here, you can see almost forever.
Gravina and Pennock Island shelter Ketchikan from ocean storms.
A safe harbor is vital.
Floatplains are nearly as common as cars.
Ketchikan's front porch is its four and a half mile long waterfront.
This is where cruise ships dock, and tourists and locals mix.
With the same gusto it greets life, Ketchikan greets a half million visitors each year.
Its feet dangling in the water, Creek Street flaunts its charm.
This is Ketchikan's historic red light district.
No one knows how many women worked the bawdy, boisterous boardwalk, but as late as 1950, there were at least 18 bordellos here.
The most infamous was run by Big Dolly MacArthur.
Twenty-six years old, Dolly quickly earned a reputation for lavish parties.
In 1953, Ketchikan officially closed its red light district, but locals still joke that Creek Street is where fishermen and fish went to spawn.
Salmon, steelhead and trout are reared at nearby Deer Creek Hatchery.
The hatchery was built in 1954, when salmon populations were declining from overfishing.
Today, an estimated 350,000 juvenile salmon are released from the hatchery each year.
Fishing remains an economic mainstay.
A power block is needed to hoist the heavy sains or nets used by some commercial salmon fishermen.
Great care is taken with the nets, which can cost upwards of $10,000.
Ketchikan's commercial fishing fleet fills its hold with cane, silver and pink salmon.
Long before purse-saners plied Alaska waters, the storied Pacific salmon was pursued by Tlingit Indians, Southeast Alaska's first residents.
Traditional Tlingit dances are performed by the Saxman dancers.
At Saxman Native Village, three miles south of Ketchikan, local Tlingit share their time-honored stories and songs.
In 1896, missionaries attempted to convert the Tlingit, but their 8,000-year-old culture survived.
In our culture, when something is given, something is expected in return.
And your return process to us this morning will be that you will join us in a song and dance.
We'll take our robop, place it upon you, and teach you a couple moves in Tlingit dancing.
Today, Saxman's 400 residents continue Tlingit tradition, in part by preserving the world's largest collection of totem poles.
Ever watchful, the unblinking eyes of these cedar monuments continue to bear witness to achievements of the proud people who first ruled this vast northern rainforest.
Equipped with hand tools and patience, today's Tlingit carvers create elaborate totemic art.
As huge timbers slowly take shape under the hands of master carvers and their apprentices, the rich fragrance of cedar fills the shed.
What I've been doing is just maintaining moisture in the canoe.
Nathan Jackson is internationally celebrated for his work.
Elaborate, elegant totem poles, each one a legend.
Well, what's going to happen on this is there's going to be water added up to about here.
That bulkhead is going to be taken off at one section right there.
And then hot rocks are going to be added to it.
Still more of these silent storytellers can be found at Totem Bight State Historic Park.
The 15 totems displayed here were brought to the site in 1938 and restored with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Interpretive tours are offered by park guides fluent in the archaic visual language of totems.
Labray. You see her lower lip? Women of high status in their society would have a labray, which could be made out of wood or bone or seashell, could be carved in the lower lip.
And it's right in the lower lip. And that's how you know that that's a woman.
And if you may have noticed on the pole... These skillfully carved totems reflect the region's unique history and Southeast Alaskan's reverence for the near magical wilderness in which they live.
Misty Fjords National Monument is only a flight away.
We see mountains, we see snow, cascading waterfalls, occasionally some goats and other wildlife like bears, deer.
The main thing we key on is the mountains that have been carved out by the glaciers, leaving all the high mountain lakes and cascading waterfalls.
As our plane gains altitude, humankind's handprint slowly fades.
Beneath the wings, a 2.2 million acre wilderness, explored 200 years ago by Captain George Vancouver.
Eons ago, ice thousands of feet deep covered this area.
As the glaciers slowly receded, they gouged deep channels, also called fjords.
Today, waterfalls spill over 3,000 foot sheer granite walls.
Solitary, serene, a magnificent fusion of rock, water and sky.
Continuing north, we stop briefly at Wrangel and Petersburg.
Wrangel is 85 miles northwest of Ketchikan, at the tip of Wrangel Island.
Tlingits, Russians and the British fought for control of Wrangel before the United States raised its flag here.
A sturdy frontier town, many of Wrangel's 2,000 residents earned their livings fishing the salmon-rich waters and logging in the surrounding rainforest.
Few cruise ships stop at Wrangel, but Alaska State ferries regularly bring visitors and supplies.
Leaving the waterfront community, we enter the Wrangel Narrows,
a thin saltwater ribbon between Kupronov and Mitkoff Islands.
For mariners, this is one of the most challenging stretches of the inside passage.
More than 70 navigational aids mark the 21-mile long channel, guiding vessels through shallow waters.
At the end of the Wrangel Narrows, Petersburg is a welcome sight.
At one of the most active fishing ports, fishermen pursue salmon, halibut, herring and shrimp.
But fishing is not merely work.
It is a tradition established in 1891 by the Norwegian immigrants who settled this seaside village.
Many of Petersburg's 3,000 residents still speak with the lilting accents of their great-grandparents.
And each May, the town celebrates Norwegian independence with lootfisk and mock biking raids.
Sitka by the Sea.
Nestled on the west coast of Baranof Island, Sitka was once renowned as the Paris of the Pacific.
Today, it's known as one of the friendliest towns in Alaska.
Hi. Hi. How's it going? Good, how about you? Good.
We got up this morning and walked through the town and we all said the same thing. Gee, isn't Sitka a nice, clean, lovely town?
This is paradise. This is paradise.
3,000-foot mountains guard the town's back.
Dozens of tiny islands shelter Sitka's face from the blustery Pacific Ocean.
About 8,000 people live here year-round. As much at home on the water as they are on shore.
Bye. Bye.
Kent Hall drops off his wife, Beverly Min, at their island home and heads for work. A day on the water.
Susan Roberts and Barbara Blackie are wildlife biologists living and working on a tiny island in Sitka Sound.
Mail call. The mail! Hey.
There's Susan Roberts here and a Barb Blackie.
It can be cold and lonely, but they endure with an enthusiasm typical of Sitkins.
What do you need to take back? The funny thing about our work, about the isolation, is people feel sorry for us and our heroes like Kent bring us fish.
We come paddling out to the boat and I guess we look all bedraggled and wet and cold and hungry and skinny.
They give us fish, it's kind of like trick-or-treating. You know, we come up to a boat, what do you have for us today?
Kent gives us cookies and sodas. People take care of us, it's great. Sitka's a great town for sure.
Okay, I'll give you a push off. See you next time.
Thanks Kent. Not too far.
Don't get wet.
Thank you. Thanks.
Wrapped in luxuriant wilderness, Sitka inspires a free-spirited artistry.
I'm going into fifth. I'm playing violin and I just opened my case and people put money in it and I put most of the money in the bank.
Sometimes I put down a sign that says Juilliard or Bust. Thank you.
Actually, I want to be an astronaut or a paleontologist.
The arts flourish here.
From Main Street galleries to Whale Park on Thimbleberry Bay.
Sitka's urban charm is enhanced by an abundance of natural splendor and a rich heritage.
Totems, silent sentinels of Tlingit history, line a forested pathway in Sitka National Historical Park.
Minutes from downtown, the park features 15 totem poles. Each one tells a story.
The Sitka dancers bring to life Tlingit history.
New Archangel Russian dancers delight audiences with spirited performances.
At nearby Sitka National Historical Park, the early conflict between Tlingit and Russian cultures is recounted.
Early Tlingit clans fought to retain their dominance but were no match for the Tsar.
In 1802, Sitka became the Russian capital of territorial Alaska.
Reminders of Sitka's past are everywhere.
This is St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska.
The building is a replica of the church built in 1844, which was destroyed by fire.
A dramatic reminder of the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Michael's delicate spire enhances Sitka's skyline.
Another notable building is the Russian Bishop's House, a two-story structure built in 1842 by Finnish shipbuilders working for the Russian American Company.
It was home to the clergy who came to Alaska with Russian explorers and traders.
Elegant furnishings and appointments made this an opulent outpost.
A strenuous but short climb leads to nearby Castle Hill.
From a fortress here, Alexander Baranov, first governor of Russian Alaska, had a sweeping view of the frontier kingdom under his command.
Across the way, there is a handsome red-roofed building.
This is home to some of Alaska's sourdough settlers, pioneers of the last frontier.
This was the first of several state-funded retirement centers built for Alaska's pioneers.
Glorious gardens of native plants surrounding the home are open to visitors.
More than a city with a well-preserved past, Sitka offers unique opportunities to learn from nature.
At the Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center, visitors are virtually eye-to-eye with eagles.
An innovative wildlife project, the nonprofit Raptor Center is the life-or-death difference for many birds of prey.
This is Volta. He came to us because he had a collision with a power line and he crushed several bones in his chest and in his wing,
so he cannot fly well enough to hunt and be released.
One of very few wild bird clinics in the world, the center also treats falcons and owls.
I want you to evaluate the potassium. Make sure that there are no adhesions.
Vicki Vosburg, wildlife veterinarian, works closely with volunteers who help care for wounded birds.
I'm not pulling the feathers up. I'm just pushing down on the rest and pushing up on the elbow.
I've wanted to be a vet since I was 10. I'm very lucky to have this job because this place means a lot to people as well as to birds.
This is Schwarzenegel here and he came to us about a year ago with a gunshot injury.
We did surgery, but he's just not going to be able to make it in the wild, so he's going to be placed.
We place about a third of our birds and we release about a third of our birds.
Released is where we put them back into the wild and we can only do that with fully functioning birds.
Placed, they can go to a zoo, they can go to a breeding facility.
These are the birds that we do not feel are suffering, but they can't fly well enough to be in the wild.
I think the center gives people a chance to see up close what they are saving when they're out there trying to save the world.
Wildlife thrives in this pristine coastal environment.
Southeast Alaska's deep saltwater fjords are the prime habitat for marine mammals.
Our final destination is generally in the vicinity of Salisbury Sound.
Humpback whales, weighing up to 40 tons, are often seen here.
Okay, there it is. 11 o'clock position again.
Okay, here they are.
Humpbacks are known for their dramatic leaps and haunting vocalizations or songs.
Salisbury Sound also is home to the playful sea otter.
Hunted to the brink of extinction by early fur traders, sea otters are protected and making a strong comeback.
Sea otters will eat between 25 to 30 percent of their body weight every single day.
Those males, they get pretty big. They'll be up to five feet long, up to 100 pounds in weight.
Females, a little bit smaller, about 60 to 70 pounds in weight, and a female will just give birth to one pup in the springtime every other year.
It has been known for them to give birth to two, but just one will survive.
It takes a lot of care for that mother to bring up one of them.
Along with the occasional male call, Kent Hall operates charters to St. Lazaria Island, a protected nesting area for puffins, Alaska's most colorful bird.
I've always enjoyed birds, and I like showing other people the birds and wildlife in Alaska.
Most people get excited. There's a lot of people that just want to see a puffin, a live puffin, and it's exciting for me when they get excited.
With its dart shirt and dinner jacket plumage, this tufted puffin appears ready for a night out.
But as the afterglow of a summer sunset fades, the puffins go to roost, content as any sitkin on land or sea.
Our next stop, Juneau, capital of the 49th state.
The largest city on Alaska's ocean highway, Juneau receives an estimated half million visitors each year. Most arrive aboard cruise ships.
Home to some 30,000 Alaskans, Juneau is America's most scenic state capital.
Isolated by high mountains, Juneau is accessible only by water or air.
In summer, locals and tourists jostle elbows in downtown. As many as three cruise ships arrive on any given day.
Some vessels are so large they dwarf Juneau's downtown.
Trolley cars roll along the waterfront.
Trolley operators recount local lore, including the story of how Juneau got its name.
Harrisburg was the town's original name. In 1880, prospectors Richard Harris and Joe Juneau struck gold at Silver Bow Basin and a tent city sprang up.
Local resident Steve Nelson picks up the story.
They're in a battle. First they're partners, right? And now they're in a battle over who's going to get the town named after them, right? So for a while the working title for this community was Harrisburg. But then, the night before the big boat, that the whole town was going to go out to the polls and decide what's the name of this town really going to be?
This guy, Joe Juneau, buys everybody in town a round of drinks. So, Juneau. That's what's stuck and that's what we're called today.
A far cry from the wilderness site Harris and Juneau fought over, the city still boasts its boom town beginning.
One of the world's largest gold strikes was made here.
It wasn't long before miners replaced their gold pans and pickaxes with dynamite and earth moving machines.
High above town on the steep western flank of Mount Roberts hangs the rusted frame of the once great Alaska Juneau mine.
To some, the AJ is a scar on the landscape. To others, it's a working man's monogram on what is today a white collar town.
Mining gave Juneau its name, purpose, and land on which to expand.
Half of all the homes and offices downtown are built on earth excavated by miners and dumped into the sea.
At Marine View Park, bronze sculptures pay homage to early hard rock miners.
And to Patsy Ann, a dog who rushed to greet the fortune seekers who staggered off steamships.
In Chicken Ridge, Juneau's Knob Hill is the historic home of Judge James Wickersham, who brought order to lawless Gold Rush Alaska.
Signed first to Alaska's Interior Gold District, Wickersham stamped out corruption and claim jumping.
Later, as Alaska's delegate to Congress, he worked tirelessly for statehood.
This stern six-story building is Alaska's capital.
Built in 1930, it first served as territorial headquarters. Statehood was not won until 1959.
Only then was Alaska's distinctive blue and gold flag flown.
Like most southeast towns, Juneau is a city of steep climbs. There are a few places you can stretch out.
At the Davis Log Cabin, Juneau's Tourist Information Center, visitors can relax before starting the hike up Franklin Street to see St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church.
The tiny octagonal church was built in 1894 at the request of a local Tlingit chief.
These rare religious icons are venerated by Orthodox parishioners and used as a focus of meditation and prayer.
Visitors are welcome.
The church is one of the most photographed sites in Juneau.
This impressive colonial mansion is the official residence of Alaska's governor.
The pillared two-story home could easily be in Virginia, but for the dramatic Tlingit totem.
Notice the figure with the long pointed nose. That is a mosquito, Alaska's unofficial state bird.
Extensive renovations have restored the mansion to its 1912 splendor.
A portrait of William Henry Seward, architect of the Alaska land purchase, is prominently displayed.
In the course of refurbishing this drawing room, workers discovered a treasure on the mantle of the fireplace, the territorial seal of the District of Alaska.
The greatest treasure of all can be seen through this window, the Alaskan Outdoors.
For adventure travelers, little compares to the excitement of a flight-seeing trip over Mendenhall Glacier.
Powerful beyond imagination, this massive river of ice is an ever-changing landscape.
Crushed rock and other debris churn up as the glacier advances and retreats.
Deep crevasses fracture its surface.
Although the surface appears lifeless, there is a thriving population of minute black worms.
Dismissed as a hoax, ice worms really do exist.
The small thread-like creatures feed on algae and organic debris flown onto the surface by the winds.
Flowing from the 1500 square mile Juno Icefield, the Mendenhall is as emblematic of southeast Alaska as the waterways.
At the northern end of Lynn Canal, Hanes.
There must be some sunshine in Alaska.
There is blue, if you look carefully.
Look, look, look, could that be an eagle up there?
It is, right?
It is, looks impressive.
Beautiful, look, look.
Even on a misty southeast morning, Hanes' come-hither charm is difficult to resist.
The welcome is warm, and cascades of color spilling from flower boxes brighten the town, advertising Hanes' normally moderate climate.
I think it's beautiful, the flowers.
That's probably what impressed me most, I'm stopping at every flower pot, it's incredible.
This is actually one of the drier spots in southeast.
Fewer than 2500 people live year-round in Hanes and nearby Chilkat Valley, but more than 175,000 travelers visit each summer, swelling the population 70 times.
Still, the pace is easygoing, the folks friendly.
There's no shortage of sights to see.
Hanes offers shopping, first-class museums, and wide-open wilderness.
But the main wilderness attraction is a wintertime activity.
As snow begins to fall, an estimated 3500 bald eagles gather along the Chilkat River to feed on a late run of chum salmon.
The raptor's sharp trill, echoing throughout the Valley of Eagles, was one of the first sounds heard by soldiers arriving at Fort William Seward.
Built in 1904, this was the only army post in Alaska for nearly two decades.
Activated after World War II, this spit and polish post has been converted to private residences and travelers' rests.
Former officers' quarters are now luxuriant inns.
But like all Southeast towns, Hanes' heart is its harbor.
Four months a year, this 15 miles of water out here is my life.
Glenn Jacobson operates a water taxi between Hanes and Skagway.
My office window is, my gosh, we have 7000 foot peaks on both sides of us.
Here it is, the middle of August, we still have snow in the peaks.
I mean, it's a very happy place to be.
Finally, we set anchor at Skagway.
The northernmost community on the inside passage, Skagway is tucked between mountains and sea in a long, narrow valley.
This is the terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway System.
A popular destination, Skagway will do almost anything to entertain visitors, even raising the dead.
How you doing, ladies and gentlemen? It's good seeing you. I'm sitting here now on one of the streets here in Skagway.
It's a little town right on the coast here of Alaska, and it's good seeing all your people again.
I know most of you people think I'm dead, but I'm starting to believe I am dead, you know, after two million people tell me that,
so I'd like to welcome you all to heaven, because you all made it, ladies and gentlemen. I'm proud of you, you know.
If it's summertime, it's showtime.
Gateway to the historic Klondike Goldfields, Skagway is part theme park.
Welcome to Skagway. We're the Derby Brothers, the undertakers in town.
We drive the antique motorcars, the Skagway streetcars.
You have sightseeing tours to all points of interest, nothing like it in the world.
Where's Elvis?
This town, with some 700 year-round residents, caters to almost 200,000 travelers each summer.
One Skagway catered to a different crowd.
Tourists are invited back to those rowdy days, when loose ladies and tent cities were the norm,
and a stampede could be started with a single word, gold.
In Skagway's Liarsville, past is present.
Don't look so concerned, folks, it's all going to pan out.
The stock sourdoughs teach gold panning to chichacos.
Get rid of that sanding gravel.
Well, then, you need to go up to the Yukon, take yourself a claim, start looking for it.
Chichaco is one word Alaskans use for newcomers, in particular, those who have yet to survive a winter.
When the ice worms wriggle their purple heads through the crust of the pale blue snow.
The brutality of the frozen north inspired countless balance.
Bean Gritz recites The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service.
Then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar.
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said,
Please, shut that door. It's fine in here, but I gravely fear you'll live in the cold and storm.
Since I left Plum Tree back in Tennessee, this is the first time I've been warm.
The Coast Mountains rise sharply, a daunting barrier between Skagway and the Klondike.
Modern explorers can easily conquer these 7,000-foot peaks.
Flight-seeing tours offer travelers a unique experience.
Staring above Taya Inlet, snow-capped peaks and rugged rainforest,
landing on the ice, travelers explore a frozen otherworld.
Movements are slow, exaggerated.
Although bound to the earth, the stark expanse creates a sensation of weightlessness.
For many, to walk here is to tread on the moon.
Airborne again, one cannot help but wonder what agony stampeters must have suffered attempting to scale these peaks.
Prospectors headed for the Klondike by way of Chilkoot Pass had to cut stairs in the snow and ice as they climbed straight up.
Called the Golden Staircase, many found the route more a road to hell than the way to heavenly fortunes.
The lucky barely survived the ordeal.
Countless dreamers died, delirious with gold fever.
Today, hiking enthusiasts may retrace the steps of gold seekers without risking life and limb.
Managed by U.S. and Canadian Park Services, the trail runs from Daiya to Lake Bennett, British Columbia.
The 33-mile Chilkoot Trail is littered with relics of the gold rush, left behind as prospectors lighten their loads.
But it is the wilderness, untamed, unforgettable, that stirs the soul.
Skagway once boasted a population of 20,000 hopeful souls.
Those who call Skagway home today are filled with the pioneering spirit of the stampeters, and they embrace frontier freedom.
Fresh air, uncrowded, fewer rules, regulations and taxes.
Wandering Broadway, the town's main street, we find many buildings dating back to gold rush days.
This building, completed in 1899, was the headquarters of the Fraternal Order of the Arctic Brotherhood, a benevolent order similar to the Elks Club.
The facade of the building is made of more than 20,000 pieces of driftwood, arranged in a basket weave pattern.
A gold pan full of glittering nuggets is mounted near the top.
Over on Seventh Avenue is a Victorian stone fortress constructed that same year.
This was Alaska's first college. Today, the building houses city hall offices and the Trail of 98 Museum.
The elegant offices of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad have been restored and serve as national historical park headquarters.
The railroad, which began operation in 1890, still makes regular runs to White Pass Summit, where Klondike-bound prospectors started the second leg of their journey.
Passengers ride in turn-of-the-century parlor cars, but a modern diesel engine is used to haul the train up the narrow shoulder of the mountain.
The ascent is riveting.
The only narrow gauge railroad operating in the United States, riding this train remains an adventure.
Before ending our journey of discovery, we fly over nearby Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.
The park encompasses 3.3 million acres.
Flowing from the snow-capped Fairweather and St. Elias Mountains, 16 tidewater glaciers plunge into frigid waters.
Massive fields of snow and ice, thousands of feet thick, feed North America's largest glaciers.
Groaning under the weight of fresh snow, the glaciers crawl toward the bay, their progress recorded by dark streaks of crushed rock, sediment, and organic debris.
Against this backdrop of ragged peaks, snow, and ice, Alaska's history unfolds.
Ten thousand years ago, humans were drawn to Glacier Bay, just as we are today.
Flying low over rocky ledges and lapis-colored lakes, we experience nature as an irresistible force.
Alaska's Inside Passage.
Beneath this lavish display of icy peaks and high blue skies, we find what remains of Eden, reflected in the sea.
Alaska's Inside Passage.
A Journey of Discovery.
A Journey of Discovery.
Alaska's Glacier Bay is a region still emerging from its long frozen sleep
under the ice. Dark ribbons of broken rock are hauled toward the sea by the
grinding glaciers that sculpt the mountains and remodel the land.
The glaciers bulldoze down the valleys with a harsh weight of a thousand
winters. In the glacier's path nearly all that existed of life, of plants or
animals or man is swept away.
Ice grips the land in a deadly embrace, yet the mass of the ice itself is living.
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Two hundred years ago, a single great tongue of ice lay in Glacier Bay.
We are still in the midst of an ice age that has seen four major periods of glacial advance
and four retreats.
The pullback of the ice continues today.
Waiting ice leaves a void, an empty stage for the opening of another ancient drama.
The process of life returning to land just released from its glacial prison.
Even as the ice melts, giving up the barren earth, nature's grand design for the land's
renewal is waiting.
From spores carried on the wind, from seeds in the droppings of birds, from the chemistry
of water, soil, and sun, the first forms of new life emerge, a spot of lichen or a button
of moss holding forth on barren rock.
Then the pioneer mountain avans lay down a fertile blanket for the roots of alder, willow,
and cottonwood.
One night on December the 18th, Mausoleum was restored.
From the tangle of alder, willow, and cottonwood thickets, young spruces shoulder up toward
the sun.
The tangle of alder, willow, and cottonwood thickets, young spruces shoulder up toward
the sun.
In the final realization of climax forest, hemlock giants rise above the spruce.
Rio or fauna, regions of the humanidad, Wella, sorrows in the
OK.
It's all OK over there.
That's such a nice place, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
And what's the thing?
Several thousand years ago, the glacier advanced over an ancient forest.
The climax of an earlier plant succession that reached to the upper bay.
Sand and gravel drifted around the bases of some of the trees before the ice moved over them.
As the ice began to recede at the mouth of the bay 200 years ago,
the stumps of the old trees were uncovered.
The glaciers are melting, but their decline is fitful.
One finger of the ice may grind forward as another shrinks.
The glacier retreating this year may lunge ahead next, only to fall back at some future time.
A change of two or three degrees in the region's temperature could bring the ice thundering again
to the sea.
No one knows how many times before life may have flourished here,
nor do we know when ice may claim the bay again.
Glacier Bay is a theater of primal dramas and a reassurance of the continuing triumph of life on
the earth.
You
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How shall we speak of a glacier
Call it white and that's forgetting the blue
To find a glacier is ice and you're overlooking that it's also rock and it's dripping rushing water
Speak in terms of the past of a long ago ice age and you're neglecting the present
You
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
Northwest of Juneau, Alaska is a place to experience both present-day ice and
landscape created by previous glaciation
Peaks here lift
15,000 feet above the sea
The fangs a white sawtooth meeting of land and sky
Glaciers born of these heights reach to tidewater and cav off icebergs
You
Find the slopes beside a glacier and you're stepping where ice repeatedly is advanced then retreated
You reach a high vantage point and the scene reveals the glaciers true scale
The ice forms a huge frozen river flowing to the sea fed from far back in the mountains
You
The cliff calving on iceberg seems powering
And it does rise more than 100 feet above the water
But from the perspective of a high slope you see the vast ice that nourishes the tremendous cliff
Fly up Reed Glacier to the Brady Icefield and perception of Park glaciers changes yet again
Here is ice nourished by today's clouds sweeping in from the Pacific and dropping their moisture
In the Fairweather Range winter snowfall is greater than summer's melt
Fed by flakes falling from clouds and avalanches sliding off surrounding slopes
snow packs to ice
Its own pressure causes crystals to deform
plastic flow begins
The whole glacier creeps down slope in response to gravity
Viewed moment to moment. This movement is not easily seen
Time itself seems frozen
Like a conveyor belt ever moving yet barely changing position the ice may reach sea level
About 50 glaciers along today's Alaskan coasts enter the sea
A dozen of these are within the park
Currently some are lengthening
Others shrinking
The process is unending
The change constant
Where glacier bay whales now swim there once was ice
That ice melted
Forests flourished
Then the ice came again
Clingent Indian people were forced out of glacier bay by advancing ice
Captain George Vancouver exploring for England couldn't get in
Where cruise ships today enter park waters
Vancouver noted in his log
A compact sheet of ice as far as the eye could distinguish
He sailed on
Today that ice is gone
And waterways thread beneath mountain peaks in place of the ice
And waterways thread beneath mountain peaks in place of glacier tongues
Forests reclosed the lower reaches
Bareness still dominates upper fjords and some glaciers have withdrawn
Other glaciers in the park, however are inching forward
They starred among high peaks where their white blankets receive continual renewal
No Alaskan tidewater glaciers are floating
Their ice rests on the sea floor
Advancing or retreating all glaciers shape the land
They pluck and rasp and grind the rock they slide over
Then they deposit what they've quarried
To mentally picture the dynamics of the ice visualize first the mountains
And the snowstorms the snow deepens and compacts to ice
Pulled by gravity and prompted by its own internal pressures
It begins to move
The bottom of the glacier rides over whatever lies in its path
Where bedrock slopes deeply ice accommodates to the contour by splitting at the surface
This forms crevasses
Some gape a hundred feet deep
When sufficient snow feeds a glacier nothing can stop its forward motion
If jutting bedrock lies in its path ice will flow over and around
And we may see a knob smoothly rounded by overriding ice or a peak jagged where it rows above the ice
See the polish of rock walls and you're viewing the slow work of ice pushing against its bed
Or notice scratches
They're the sandpapering and filing of gravel and rocks frozen into the glacier and dragged against bedrock
Where do rock tools originate?
Some are plucked free as the ice inches from the ice
Some are plucked free as the ice inches forward
They are the rasps that widen and deepen the valley troughs sculpted by glaciers
Rock rolls and avalanches onto the ice surface and becomes a part of the glacier
Some rock rides externally as visible ribbons of rubble called moraines
Some rides unseen part of the internal glacier
There may be so much rock that the ice turns black and the calving face is striped
Rock is one ingredient of a glacier in addition to ice flowing water is another
The water comes from melt trickles and rain runoff
Lubricated by even a film of such water at its base the glacier slides over its rough bed
Water also carries off and deposits material ground from bedrock by the glacier
Silt so fine it's like flour floats in suspension and turns to sea milky
Where glacier melt mixes with salt water
Fresh water is not as dense as salt water it rises to the sea surface and floats
Blending its glacial silt with the clear sea water and creating color patterns carried by the currents
Outwash deposits edge into the sea
Over time outwash debris pouring from a glacier may fill even huge amounts of water
And debris pouring from a glacier may fill even huge valleys to great depths
Today's surface gravels may support trias and willow and alder and spruce
Streams cutting down to former surfaces sometimes reveal remnants from forests of long ago
Ice advancing into salt water mounds up rubble along its margin
Additional silt, sand, gravel and rocks from tiny to huge fall from the lower end of a glacier's conveyor belt
Such debris forms a terminal moraine, a ridge beneath the ice snout
Glaciers with enough debris to partially fill in ahead of themselves may advance into exceedingly deep water
Their moraines protect the ice fronts and reduce erosion
Without such a shield a glacier could not supply ice to its snout fast enough
More ice would melt and break off than can be replenished from above
The glacier would draw back to shallow water
This happened to the Laplu and Reed glaciers
At low tide it's obvious that their snouts rest on shore
There they stabilized
And now they may again be building underwater moraine and starting to re-advance
The Johns Hopkins and Grand Pacific glaciers clearly are advancing
They carry huge amounts of rock, raw material for a barrier between ice front and sea
Furthermore the upper ends of all these advancing glaciers lie high enough to be well nourished by snowfall
Tidewater glaciers thus are different than those entirely on land
They respond to climate and also to their own terminal moraines
Climate controls broad trends
But for glaciers reaching the bay the dynamics of advance and retreat are fine-tuned by water depth
That crucial depth in turn depends on the water depth of the glacier
That crucial depth in turn depends on the snout's relation with its moraine
The shallower the water at the snout, the fewer the icebergs carved off
Those that fall from the crevice and pinnacle cliff towering above sea level of course are affected by water depth
But how much ice breaks off below the surface
depends directly on how much of the glacier is exposed to the water's warmth and erosive action
Any tidewater glacier that loses the protection of its moraine is doomed
Present climate can't build the upper glacier fast enough to balance the ice capped from a snout in deep water
Ice is buoyant
Underwater bergs rise silently
creating undulating waves of ice covered water
If a tidewater glacier is undernourished by snowfall
or in some other way loses grip on its terminal moraine
retreat begins
With the barrier between ice and sea gone, the glacier virtually unzips
During the last two centuries, ice in the main glacier bay waterway
is melted back 60 miles from where Captain Vancouver saw it
In Muir Inlet, more than 20 miles of what was glacier is now fjord
Few present-day glaciers in the park actively thrust forward into the fjord
Choking waterways, most have retreated to the heads of their inlets
Will today's white scene prevail tomorrow?
No
Glaciation is a dynamic process
Snow crystals shower from the sky and compress into ice
Glaciers inch downslope sculpting the land, cabbing into the sea
They come and go and come again
The glacier's story is cyclic, ongoing, never-ending
Thanks for watching!