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.
Tom Skilling's Alaska: July 2005 Archives
July 9, 2005 Sitka
The WGN crew including Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling, producer Pam Grimes, web producer Amy Mowery and photographer Steve Scheuer begin our travels to Alaska today with a short stop over in Sitka, where we had the opportunity to interview Howard Ulrich, a survivor of the 1958 tsunami in Lituya Bay, near Glacier National Park.
47 years ago today, the father and his 7-year-old son survived the largest wave ever recorded, nearly 800 feet high, with a splash nearly 1,800 feet. It was so destructive that it literally stripped all vegetation off of the surrounding foothills near shore.
We then had the wonderful opportunity to meet with John Litten, who helped found the Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center. This amazing facility is the only one of its kind in Alaska and birds from all over the state are flown here to recuperate from various life threatening accidents and are either reintroduced into the wild or spend the rest of their life in this safe, yet native habitat. Not only do bald eagles reside here, but also red tail hawks and owls to name a few.
The center takes in more than 200 birds a year and has an indoor flight training facility that allows the rehab center volunteers to monitor a bird's progress and if its ready to be released into the wild. This is truly a must see facility in Sitka. For more information, go to www.alaskaraptor.org
Tomorrow the WGN crew heads out to Lituya Bay to see for ourselves the site of the 1958 tsunami and how the area continues to leave footprints of this tremendous natural disaster.
