Mountain Goat Gazing on Gloomy Knob ... and a Doomed Hike

July 19 – Gloomy Knob to Russell Island

Glacier Bay Test ... Can you see the goats???

Earlier in July during our previous trip to Glacier Bay we lamented the fact that we hadn’t seen any mountain goats. They are rare to see. Partly because they blend in so well against the white gray granite cliffs. But also because they graze at such high altitudes.

We had learned from the Park Rangers that the best place to look for the mountain goats was Gloomy Knob, a 1331-foot tall tower of granite up the west arm. The weather seemed to foretell our destination, as we pulled anchor under dense gray clouds to begin our morning journey to Gloomy Knob.

Our efforts were rewarded! Scanning the towering cliffs with binoculars, we soon spotted close to a dozen goats, some up high and some that had climbed down to lower altitudes to forage for food, including a number of nannies and kids.

To the naked eye they were hard to spot and we were thankful to have telephoto lenses to zoom in for photos.

 These sure-footed creatures are fascinating to watch, and seemingly learn to conquer cliffs at a young age. We cringed watching one nannie and her kid climbing down a steep narrow rocky ridge ... an exercise that looked like Mountain Climbing 101.

She kept a watchful eye as they made their way down, at points letting him take the lead, and then if he hesitated, she would push ahead giving him no choice but to follow, testing the traction of his small cloven hooves.

When they reached a plateau that was fairly level, they took a rest and he was allowed to nurse for his gallant efforts!

Hundreds of photos later, we continued on and dropped anchor behind Russell Island, at the base of Tarr and Johns Hopkins Inlets.

Anxious to explore, we put the tender in and sped across the waterway to Reid Glacier, passing creatively shaped ice formations along the way.

Roland 007 and his "Bond Girls"

Must have been something about the sound of the engine, the wind passing us by, the tender at high-speed skimming across the water, and of course our sexy outfits ... but somewhere across this waterway the “Bond Girls” were born ... as JoAnn exclaimed she felt like a Bond girl in a 007 adventure movie. 

After visiting Reid Glacier we took the tender back behind Russell Island and decided to get out for a hike along the shore. Roland and Lee pulled the anchor out of the tender to secure the boat so it could free float with the tide, and we made our way up the beach.

The shoreline, covered in sharp rocks and shells, was slippery from the outgoing tide. But even more alarming was the bear scat we saw five minutes into our walk. FRESH bear scat. A few minutes later we saw two more piles ... even fresher! Sooo ... erring on the side of caution, we made our way back to the tender (rather quickly), pulled anchor and motored back to the safety and comfort of Engelenbak.