By John D’Onofrio
 
As always, I was filled with anticipation as we rounded Point Gustavus and headed up into Glacier Bay. Like many photographers, I love high drama. And if there’s a more dramatic place on Earth than Glacier Bay, with its more than 1,000 glaciers, I don’t know about it.This was my tenth trip to this UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the sense of awe does not fade. As someone who has cherished wilderness for many decades, the sheer scale of the Bay and surrounding mountains is mind-blowing. Except for the visitor center at Bartlett Cove, this National Park––larger than the state of Connecticut––lacks a single man-made object. No buildings. No roads. No signs. Not even any established trails. The opportunity to immerse oneself in such primeval majesty is indescribable.Over the course of the next five days, we enjoyed a feast for the senses (and the spirit).

Sea Lions on South Marble Island – photo by John D’Onofrio

Puffin in Muir Inlet – photo by John D’Onofrio

• South Marble Island, covered with hundreds of bellowing sea lions and countless cormorants, perched on the rocks like dark sentinels. A humpback whale surfaces, and Tufted Puffins flutter on the surface of the water like richly adorned ballet dancers.

The McBride Glacier – photo by John D’Onofrio

• The McBride Glacier, near the head of the less-visited Muir Inlet, where the color of the water changes to a rich aquamarine.  Exploring McBride Inlet in the skiff, we glide past towering cliffs covered in kittiwake nests. As we approach the head of the inlet, the vegetation disappears, replaced by austere, glacier-carved moraines scoured bare by the retreating ice and braided by waterfalls. Otters regard us with curiosity from passing ice floes. We linger beneath the massive face of the glacier, watching the blue ice tumble into the sea.

The ‘Ice Garden’ – photo by John D’Onofrio

• The Great ‘Ice Garden’ at the base of the monumental Margarie Glacier, a sand bar exposed at low tide and covered by a surreal sculpture garden of beached icebergs, accessed via the skiff. Wandering among the ice, cameras clicking, is like photographing a dreamscape.

The Fairweather Range – photo by John D’Onofrio

• The Mouth of Johns Hopkins Inlet, surely the supreme viewpoint of the awesome Fairweather Range, capped by Mt. Fairweather, at 15,300 feet, the 18^th tallest peak in North America. Here, towering peaks, swaddled in ice, converge above the Bay, piercing the clouds.

Brown Bear at Lamplugh Glacier – photo by John D’Onofrio

• The Lamplugh Glacier, where we explore another vivid blue ice garden on foot. A brown bear appears, making its way through the colonnades of ice, passing us some 100 feet away, and once again, our cameras whir.

Mother and Kid at Gloomy Knob – photo by John D’Onofrio

• At a place known as Gloomy Knob, mountain goats gather on a precipice, grazing on the underbrush. One statuesque female is accompanied by a tiny fluffy kid that gazes down at us as we pass.

Twilight at Fingers Bay – photo by John D’Onofrio

• Fingers Bay, where the evening light renders the Bay in a rich, painterly light. The spouts of passing whales are illuminated by the warm golden sunlight, and the glassy water reflects the mountains and clouds.

By the end of our time in Glacier Bay, I am once again transformed by the beauty of this amazing landscape, awestruck by the opportunity to experience the power and splendor of this remarkable place up close and personal, an experience that those on the occasional passing cruise ship can only dream about. For a photographer, this is as good as it gets, a chance to capture beauty that is both epic and intimate, an unforgettable experience that will live on in the images ––and in one’s heart.

I’m already looking forward to next year…
 
– John D’Onofrio

NOW ON SALE – Trip #464 – October 8-12, 2025 – 5-day San Juan Islands Photography Workshop
Departs/Arrives – Bellingham
Availability: 8 Spots
Price: $3,300, 30% off, normally 4,775 per person (double occupancy)

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Feel free to contact Sarah about any of our photography workshops on the David B.

Brown Bear at Pack Creek – photo by Robert Landry

More of our passengers are kind enough to share some of their photos and experiences with us. Here are photos from Robert Landry with written snippets of the trip from Preble Giltz from our May Pack Creek Photography Workshop. See below for a link to his other photography. —

Sailing out the channel, the juxtaposition of the David B with the mega cruise ships was remarkable and also very validating, as I looked at the massive ships that sell a prepackaged adventure and cookie cutter experiences and knew my impending adventure would be anything but generic. Every bobbing rotation of the David B’s antique motor hums authenticity.

David B – photo by Robert Landry

The tidal pools at Wood Spit were full of starfish, mostly greenish or bluish, which was different from what I’ve seen previously elsewhere. In the back inlet there was a heron, which offered a bit of refined elegance to contrast the exotic, almost extraterrestrial, world of the tidal pool.
 

Heron – photo by Robert Landry

After a bit, we headed to the wooded area, which had a glacier in the background. Everything is so ephemeral in this environment. Tides, mist, animals, nothing is stagnant, and yet so much seems timeless. As we moved into the forest, it also had a primeval quality, but capturing its essence required being in the moment.
 
The trip to the back of the fjords in Fords Terror makes you feel so small. The cliffs are high and steep, and you can only imagine the water is just as deep. I believe I heard Jeffery say the water was about 450 feet deep. Everywhere there was life, from bounding cascades to the moss and lichen to the miraculous trees that manage to take root in the crevices of the rocks. The fjords have a maze-like quality, seemingly going on endlessly. This all adds to the timeless feeling.

 
Waterfalls – Photo by Robert Landry
 
It’s interesting how we all visited the same spots during the workshop, and yet we all produced very different visions of what we saw and experienced. It’s really nice to share. Seeing how other people processed images gave me some new ideas and techniques. It was also a nice was to “revisit” spots through others’ eyes.
 

Bald Eagle – Photo by Robert Landry
 
Any part of the second to last day could have been a stand-alone vacation! It was a busy and adventurously full day that started with an early departure to see the Dawes Glacier. Very soon after departing Dawes Inlet, we started to see regular ice floes. I should have outfitted myself sooner, as it got cold quickly and while I was inside pulling on extra layers, I saw an almost iconic  ice floe with 2-3 seals, exactly the shot I wanted!
 

Seals – photo by Robert Landry

The ride to Sandford Inlet, where we ended up anchoring and spending the final night, was filled with sighs of amazement and a general sense of satisfied fulfillment. The Dawes Glacier experience really touched all the senses, the booming sound of the falling ice, the sight of every shade of blue imaginable, the feeling of mist, the cold, salty smell of the water and ultimately the earthy, almost granite-like taste of the ice that we added to our whiskey to toast the day. It was fulfilling in every way!

Dawes Glacier – photo by Robert Landry

– Preble Giltz with photos by Robert Landry
https://www.facebook.com/RobertLandryNaturePhotography