Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

September 9, 2012

Glacier Bay National Park, AK

Incredible!  Untamed! Untouched!  Phenomenal! Does not even come close to describing this massive waterway that is called Glacier Bay!!!

I know the pictures will do no righteousness for the ice itself, but take my word for it…. it is truly, truly amazingly hard to believe it is not a painted canvas wall that the Captain has placed around the entire ship in order to take your breath away.

pulling into the bay

Glaciers are developed when snow, layers itself on top of a previous layer. The snow packs itself. Eventually (decades) the layers of compressed snow slowly become ice.  

The glaciers can move over 5 feet a day. Gravity gradually causes the glacier to slowly slither down the mountains toward the sea.  As the glacier meets the sea, huge shards of the ice break away from the main glacier and crash into the sea to become icebergs.  This process is called “calving”.

iceburg

 This is a massive image and sound. Calving occurs frequently in the summer months, and a few times an hour from tidewater changes. The tides changes some days in excess of 30 feet.

We were privileged to witness this event. The collapse was thunderous.  It happened virtually in unhurried motion. The splash went approximately 100 feet in the air.

Mendenhall Glacier

The hues were an iridescent azure and jade. It was as if someone beamed a light all through the inside of the ice. Purely extraordinary!  When light hits highly compacted ice, long wavelength colors (reds) are absorbed, while short wavelength colors (blues) reflect back through the ice to your eyes. It was solely natural with no instigating, no human touch, no man made explosives, merely nature at its finest!

Just as the ice fell

Nothing can compare to the sense of scale and magnificence of the massive ice wall, and the incredible sound when it calves.

The captain had announced to us that the weather was clear enough to enter the bay to its furthest northern point. He said he was not able to do this on his last 3 passes. We were extremely fortunate.

Glacier just before calving 

Once at the turnaround point the captain idled the ship and Kathy Slamp, the naturalist, came across the PA. She informed us of how every peak was named and why.  Again, she was extremely boring and monotone, but I did get some good and accurate facts out of her commentary.    

(click on the arrow for an awesome video of a calving - not my video but really cool anyway)

The vessel was first stopped with the Starboard side facing north. After one hour had passed, it was turned completely around so the Port side was facing north. This permitted every person on the ship to have maximum view of the entire bay. It was dazzling how the captain turned on a dime, with little to no motion. He made a complete circle with 965 feet of the liner.  It was very impressive.

The water was still; the sounds were silent except for the occasional calving and the ooohhhs and ahhhss from the passengers.

It was as if being on another planet – all-alone in the universe. It was something I will never, ever forget. It is vastly remote. There was an undeclared period of silence amongst the passengers. It was surreal.

Once leaving the bay we headed towards College Fjord.  We were in Glacier Bay from 6:00am to 3:00pm and College Fjord from 5:30pm to 8:30 pm.

While in College Fjord we saw more whales. Momma and baby Orcas, along with humpbacks. Humpback whales are the whales you often see on calendars and postcards. They are the whales that have the cool looking tails. Every tail is unique. They look the same from a distance but every single humpback whale has its own marking/notch. Their tails are somewhat like a fingerprint to humans.

We also saw a lot of seals playing in the icy waters. . They seemed to be entertaining us for their own amusement. There were at least 20 of them all doing the backstroke and all looking towards the ship. They were adorable.

Once again, after dinner we participated in the on ship entertainment. Tonight was vodka tasting in the Explorers Lounge. It was interesting to learn the different processing techniques and distilling of vodkas from around the world. And yes, they gave out 4 different types of samples…why do you think I went? LOL.

It was a full day of sightseeing and not leaving the ship. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. We sailed again during the night hours and by 1:00am we were in port at Whittier.

This port ended our 7-day cruise and started our 7 day land tour. Thanks so much for reading and enjoy the pictures because on this last day of cruising I decided to catch up with the laundry and actually washed my camera. The rest of the trip is pictures taken on my cell phone. J