Glacier Bay National Park

By: Kim Nesbitt

By KAVU

June 8^th, 2021

Back to the Park

Backcountry permit #1 of 2021. That was what a Glacier Bay National Park ranger handed me and my backcountry buddy, Tamsen, when we arrived at the entrance to the bay in early May.

“You ladies have fun out there”, he said with a bit of a nervous tone in his voice. “Love the kayak by the way”.

Of the 600,000+ visitors to Glacier Bay annually, most of those on large cruise ships, only a few hundred people explore the backcountry of the park. Because of Covid19, Alaska is looking at a summer tourism season with minimal cruise ships, and there were none operating in early May, so we knew we’d have the park to ourselves. I’ve wanted to explore this part of Glacier Bay in a kayak for years, but had never done it out of fear of the boat traffic, so I was stoked to finally have the opportunity to head out into it's quiet waters.

The "Pumpkin-Yak" Gets Wet

“Well, if someone hits your kayak, it’s definitely murder, because there’s no way they didn’t see you”.

The Glacier Bay rangers make the best comments..... The orange and green fluorescent kayak had her christening and her maiden voyage. We were incredibly thankful when she floated!

Type 2 Fun

Cold.

Wet.

Beautiful.

Every day, we put on cold and damp clothes before getting back into our cold and damp kayak to paddle in the cold and damp weather to our next cold and damp camp spot. It was glorious. This trip tested my ability to be in, what most people would consider, miserable conditions and still have an incredible time. Although, I’m very happy to be writing this in a warm and dry place;-)

And when the sun came out for a grand total of 1 hour during the entire 8 days, we had to take advantage, and that was the only night we had warm and dry gear!

A Familiar, Yet Unfamiliar Landscape

I’ve worked in tourism on small ships since 2017, and have been into Glacier Bay National Park countless times. We knew the area well, knew what we could potentially see in specific places in terms of landscape and wildlife, but in Glacier Bay, we try to take nothing for granted and to have no expectations.

The landscape I know was covered in 8 feet of snow, and bird life I’d never been able to see before was accompanied by the sounds of the glaciers with no ship engine running in the background. I know this place, but I’d never experienced it like this!

I spent 5 years looking at various spots from the ships, thinking about how cool it would be to "kayak in that area or camp on that beach", or to "walk around by that glacier", and I finally got to do it. I got to explore on my own terms and take my sweet time. Especially in such a quiet year for boat traffic, the wildlife was exceptionally accessible.

We had many of the usual suspects: otters, bear, mountain goats, eagles, sea lions, and whales, but the highlight was my first ever wolf encounter, just on the other side of the river we were pumping water from. A magical moment that would not have happened if it weren’t for this exact sequence of events.

Every trip into Glacier Bay reminds me how epic it is!

Local Worldwide

At a time where borders are starting to cautiously open, I’m so lucky I have such an incredible backyard to explore. I’ve always loved Southeast Alaska since I first came here 5 years ago, and now, having lived here full-time for a year, I keep falling more and more in love.