Glacier Bay - August 3rd

Glacier Bay Photos

Our route from Sitka to Glacier Bay.

Day 2 of the Cruise
After our full day cruising around Sitka, we boarded the Alaskan Dream and settled in to our commodious stateroom. We participated in a welcome aboard happy hour in the forward lounge, then headed to the dining room for the first of many fine dinners. After dinner there was a briefing about the next day's activities, then we headed to bed. During the night we sailed to our first destination, Glacier Bay.

Saturday morning we awoke to glorious scenery as we sailed to the Glacier Bay National Park visitor center to pick up a Park Ranger who would spend the day aboard, pointing out points of interest and scenic and wildlife highlights.

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We cruised past the Beardslee Islands viewing what would be the first of many waterfalls in Glacier Bay, as well as a mountain goat, brown bear, numerous Stellar sea lions, and eagles.

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Apologies for the bouncy video but we were, after all, on a moving vessel.

Our ultimate destination was to be the Johns Hopkins Glacier, a trip of about 55 miles from the park visitor center. Along the way we saw quite a few water falls and lesser glaciers.

According to the material provided by our Scientific Expedition Leader, Larisa,

"In 1794, when Captain George Vancouver visited the ice-filled waters of Icy Strait, there was a wall of ice resting in what is now known as Glacier Bay. In 1879, when John Muir visited this area, it was discovered that the ice had retreated more than 60 miles from its original discovery in 1794..." Well, all I can say is, so much for arctic glacial retreat being a modern-day, human-caused phenomenon.

The highlight of our Glacier Bay sojourn was arriving at the face of the Johns Hopkins Glacier. This glacier is different than most in Glacier Bay in that it is actually advancing, not receding. No-one is sure why this is the case.

Approaching the Johns Hopkins Glacier.

The point of rock on the left is Jaw Point. We are still more than a mile from the glacier face.

Carroll Glacier

Rednu Glacier

It is very difficult to perceive the actual scale of the scenery from the water. We were never closer than 1/4 mile from the face of the glacier (this is considered the closest one can get safely due the the threat of calving) but it felt much closer. The top of the glacier face was between 250 and 300 feet from the water but, as some of the photos will show, didn't seem that high. We learned that the face of the glacier actually extends to the floor of the channel, in some cases as much as 1,000 feet.  The depth of the Johns Hopkins Inlet is about 900 feet. Most folks are familiar with pictures of huge chunks of ice falling from the glacier face, a process called calving. Calving can also occur from the glacier face that is below the surface of the water creating what are known as "shooters." The resulting icebergs, sometimes the size of buildings, will shoot from the bottom to the surface with incredible force (envision an ice cube rising from the bottom of a glass and apply several orders of magnitude) creating tsunamis of dangerous size. Fortunately, we didn't witness this phenomenon first-hand.

We had an amazing time at the glacier and got to witness (although didn't get any photos of) a major calving that resulted in a ship-sized iceberg and some rocking of our boat. Bidding the Johns Hopkins Glacier adieu, we headed back to the park headquarters to drop off our Ranger and take a short hike in the woods.

Along the forest trail at the visitors' center.

After our hike we boarded our water-borne home and began the journey to Alaska's state capitol, Juneau, our Sunday destination. Watch for our next post in a few days.

A Tlingit trail marker.