Designated wilderness areas exist in national parks from coast to coast, but many of them can be described as "islands of wildness surrounded by development." Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is a rare exception, "a wild place within the context of equally wild and sometimes wilder surroundings," and the park has prepared a document that "clearly defines the current status of and threats to the park's wilderness character.

In the summer of 2005 a killer whale calf was found dead in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and the discovery led to an unusual opportunity. Very few complete killer whale skeletons are known to be on display anywhere in the country, and now, after an impressive cooperative effort, the articulated skeleton has gone on public display near the park.

Come the summer of 2014 you'll be able to see a 45-foot-long humpback whale out of the water at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

There's been some occasional debate about the appropriate number of large cruise ships in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, but the visitors aboard the daily tour boat Baranof Wind last Friday are probably glad the 1,260-passenger Statendam was in the area. Mechanical problems left the smaller vessel dead in the water in a remote area, but her passengers were safely carried back to port by the cruise ship.