Glacier Bay National Park Visitor Center — Attraction in Alaska

If you get room #51 then don't buy a lottery ticket anytime soon because your luck just ran out! We booked our room 3 months in advance, obviously not soon enough, because we were stuck next to the machine room. If you like the noise and vibrations that one would typically enjoy while sleeping on a cruise ship then this is the room for you. Otherwise bring ear plugs and A LOT of patience. Aside from the room there is no communication from the outside world at this lodge, or even to the local town of Gustavus, unless you either 1. use the landline or 2. sit in the lobby with the other dozens of people using the sketchy lodge wifi. Not that I really care about this but if you want to research what to do or where to go or how to arrange a ride while in the area, it is extremely difficult. As for the food in the restaurant, some days were better than others, but nothing really above average aside from the prices. The servers were extremely polite and the only, aside from the $8 ICE IPA draft beer, bright spot to the lodge. The beds were so so comfortable, one pillow per person, the rooms were hot, a ceiling fan or other fan would've been appreciated, there's no in room refrigerator or microwave or TV. It's basically "glamping" for $300/nt. Twenty years ago I stayed at the national park lodge in Yellowstone and promised myself then that I would never stay in a national park lodge ever again...but I guess I forgot! Unfortunately these beautiful properties with SO much potential are government owned and are run by subcontracted companies (Aramark in this case, most likely the...

The Glacier Bay National Park Visitor Center is on the second floor of this building, where you can get your National Park passport stamp.

Be warned, although you can walk around and look at the exhibits, there is not a ranger staffing the desk after 4 PM, and the National Park stamp is not left out. This is what happened to us. When we got to the hotel, the National Park Visitor Center portion was closed for the day so we were worried about not getting our National Park passport stamp after coming all this way.

We walked a trail around the lodge and ended up catching the tail end of a presentation of the park rangers in the Xunaa Shuká Hít Huna tribal house just past the Snow the Whale skeleton. The presentation began about 7 PM.

In the morning, we dropped off our luggage at the front desk and had it tagged with the airline that we were flying back with. This is because checkout is before we'd be back from the official 8 hour boat tour through Glacier Bay with the actual park ranger (and the National Park passport stamp and Junior Ranger program.)

After dropping off the luggage, we walked from the lodge down a trail to Bartlett Cove dock to visit Glacier Bay National Park.

After the boat tour, it was a mad dash to get to the bus on time, as it leaves for Gustavus at 3:45 PM. All of our luggage was waiting for us on the bus.

If you're staying at the lodge for one night and taking the boat tour, you'll need to check out this visitor center after hours, otherwise, you won't have time to see it and make it back to the...

If you have the opportunity to explore Gustavus and Glacier Bay, TAKE IT! This is a magical jewel of Alaska. Guest cabins are well built, clean and warm. Just off the beach with beautiful views of the bay and evening sunsets, you can walk for hours and soak in the natural beauty. There are several boardwalks that take you through the forests and along streams and through the muskgag with some hidden artwork in the trees. There is an awesome historic lodge built to commemorate the native inhabitants as well as several totem polls AND an amazing whale skeleton assembled under a converging to get a close up idea of the scale of these creatures. Loads of wildlife, moose, Sitka blacktail deer, black bear, brown bear, porcupine and tons of birds. Please be aware of your surroundings, be bear aware and give them all the space they need! You won't be disappointed with...