Today the WGN crew spent the day on the Glacier Bay Boat Tour, with fellow travelers at the Glacier Bay Lodge and the dedicated staff aboard our vessel, including National Park Service interpreter Mary Lou and native Chicagoan Joe Seebacher, who grew up just a few blocks from the WGN studios.
In the few days that we have been here, the most common denominator is just how friendly and welcoming everyone is here. Regardless of your origins, Alaska brings out the best in people.
The boat tour departed from Glacier Bay Lodge in Bartlett Cove and in one of the last truly wild areas of our country, we were able to see boundless amounts of native wildless right before our eyes. From the playful sea otters eating kelp to the cinnamon brown bear and her cubs taking a leisurely bath along the beach to the magnificent orca whales swimming alongside our boat.
However, the towering tidal glaciers proved the most awe-inspiring scene of the day as the thunderous sounds of calving pieces of ice hit the sea and the precipitous peaks of the glacier appeared as an entrance to a mighty fortress. It is indeed a force of nature to be reckoned with.
As we have discovered already at Lituya Bay, Alaska is full of examples of rejuvenation. It little more than 100 years ago, much of Glacier Bay was under ice. Now, it is teeming with wildlife and vegetation, undisturbed by the advancing world around it. It truly is one of the best kept secrets in Alaska.
Tomorrow, we will be traveling by train to the town of Seward on the Kenai peninsula where we will be talking to survivors of the 1964 tsunami and visiting Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park.
Note: Due to limited internet access, photos and videos of our daily adventures will be delayed.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
