2019 Alaska Trip - Day 38 - Ferry From Juneau To Gustavus & Bartlett Cove, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Another early morning. Our taxi picked us up a little before 6:00 a.m. in the Mendenhall Campground, and our driver dropped us off a little after 6:00. Since we didn't have vehicles this time, boarding was easy, and we just walked on the smaller LeConte ship.

We departed on time at 7:00 a.m. for our 6-hour trip to Glacier Bay National Park which included a detour to the village of Hoonah. The morning was rainy, cloudy, and pretty dreary. The scenic mountains were covered by clouds, so we all just went to the cafeteria and ordered some breakfast.

Afterwards we parked ourselves in the Observation Lounge where we pretty much read and napped.

I had to put in some earplugs as there always seem to be a few people that can't seem to keep their conversations private. It's quite annoying when people are carrying on conversations you care nothing about in full voice. And, on this smaller boat, there are far fewer places to go to get away.

The rain finally quit as we pulled into Hoonah.

We were only there about a half an hour, but it turned the four-hour trip to Gustavus into a six-hour trip due to the detour.

The dock at Gustavus (pronounced Gus TAY vus by the locals) is nothing fancy as we approached around 1:00 p.m.

Now the Glacier Bay Lodge is located in Glacier Bay National Park and it is run by concessionaire Aramark. If you are staying at the lodge, they send a van to pick you up at the ferry dock which is ten miles away. The ride is complimentary.

But if you are not staying at the lodge in their over-priced rooms and need a ride to the campground, they charge you $15 per person each way. And you have to pay that even if you have reservations on the Glacier Bay Boat Tour which is also run by Aramark and is not cheap at $450 per couple. You also have to pay for this transportation even if there is room in a lodge bus, and it costs them $0 extra. That kind of thing really irks me.

So, we had to add $60 to the boat tour price to get to Bartlett Cove and back to the ferry. There are a couple of other taxis in the small town, but they charge the same $15/person rate, so it is what it is.

By the way, though Glacier Bay National Park is 3.3 million acres, Bartlett Cove is the only developed section of the park, and it's just a tiny, tiny piece.

Steve & Esther were taken to the lodge and we were taken in a different vehicle and dropped off at the park Visitor Information Station (VIS) near the campground where we had to register to camp.

Okay, so this is confusing. The park has the Visitor Information Station (VIS) which is a stand-alone building, but they also have a Visitors Center on the second floor of the lodge not even a quarter mile away. Fortunately, our driver knew which one we needed.

The VIS is a quarter mile away from the campground, and they have wheelbarrows for campers to haul in gear.

The restrooms in the above photo are heated and have sinks and flush toilets but, again, they are a quarter-mile away from the campground.

You cannot drive to the campground, so ferrying over a vehicle would have been a waste of money for us.

We got registered and followed the sign to the campground.

There is a wide path that goes under the fueling dock and makes it pretty easy to push a wheelbarrow if you need it.

Now, though you do have to register for the campground, there is no charge to stay there. They have 33 tent camping sites, and we found only about five in use.

We selected Site 7 as it was close to a food cache, a latrine, a warming shelter, and the fire ring on the rocky beach. It was also closer to the lodge where we would walk to have meals, and it was close to the short, but lovely, Forest Trail (one-mile loop).

Fortunately, it didn't rain at all while we were getting set up and the trees blocked the wind coming off of Bartlett Cove.

We put our food in one of the three food caches ....

as there are bears in the area. However, we didn't have much food as we planned to join Esther & Steve in the lodge for breakfast and dinners. We just had a few snacks for hikes and the boat tour, and that kept our pack weight down since we didn't have to bring more food or our camp stove. Water is available at the VIS, so we didn't need to haul in any extra water.

This is the latrine that looked fairly new.

In fact, at this time, it was the only one. It looked like another was under construction, but we made a good call in camping near this one.

This is the warming shelter with its wood stove where you could have a fire and get out of the rain.

And this is the wood shed (ax provided) with free firewood for the warming shelter stove and the fire ring on the beach.

The individual campsites don't have a firepit, but there is a community fire ring on the beach. Actually, it's not a permanent fire ring, it's just a ring of rocks that people build and re-build as necessary.

After getting our bearings, we walked back toward the lodge. There is totem pole reproduction, ....

a native canoe display, ....

and a full skeleton of a Humpback Whale that was killed by a cruise ship several years ago.

We found Esther & Steve in the lobby of the lodge sitting by the fire using the Wi-Fi. We decided to have an early dinner, and just hung out until the dinner menu was available at 5:00.

The ladies were in the gift shop when Steve and I were taken to our table.

When Linda and Esther returned, we ordered our Keto-friendly dinner with Linda & I splitting a ribeye steak and a salad.

After dinner, Steve & Esther walked to the campground with us to check it out, and then we walked the Forest Trail back to the lodge. It's a great little trail through the rainforest with a couple of ponds .....

and the spongy moss carpeting the forest floor.

Eventually, we came to the accessible boardwalk portion of the trail at Blackwater Pond.

It's supposed to be a good place to see moose, if you have the time and are patient enough.

We saw a female Barrow's Goldeneye duck, but that was about it.

We continued on the boardwalk, ....

crossed a road, and eventually ended up at the front of the lodge.

Steve & Esther headed off to their room and we walked back to the campground.

It was still too early for bed, so we walked to the opposite end of the campground which is probably a good quarter-mile long. The farther we got from the VIS, the more private the sites. Oh, and we found a big pile of bear scat on the path, so we definitely wanted to follow the rules regarding storing our food away from the tent.

It still wasn't quite 9:00 when we got in our tent and stuffed ourselves in our sleeping bags. It was still light out, but we read until we fell asleep.

Tomorrow is our all-day Glacier Bay Boat Tour with a National Forest interpretive ranger on board. We're looking forward to that.