Glacier Bay - 17th August

Two hundred and fifty years ago, Glacier Bay didn’t exist – it was one giant ice river over 100 miles long and thousands of feet deep. This was the end of the Little Ice Age. Today, that giant glacier is gone, having retreated north.

What remains is a bay, with many islands and inlets, along with numbers of glaciers in the upper bay that flow down from the high peaks. Some of these glaciers are tidewater glaciers – they flow down to the sea and calve off chunks of ice that form diamond-like bergs in the cold waters.

The area is Glacier Bay National Park; a World Heritage area. This is for the glaciers themselves and also for the evidence of the regeneration of the land as plants and animals gradually reclaim the land left barren by the ice sheets.

From about 7 am, we were in Glacier Bay. It was much colder, but still clear and cloudy. This was a great day here; normally it is very foggy with very poor visibility.

Selfie at Glacier Bay

We slowly cruised up the bay, with narration by Parks Rangers who had come on board. We got to the upper reaches of the bay. Towering peaks were snow-covered, with significant ice sheets. We crawled up Tarr Inlet to see Margerie Glacier. This glistening blue ice river comes down to the water Our captain  brought the ship up quite close to the glacier edge (maybe 250m away) and we could see the mile wide glacier and the 250 foot high edge. The view was brilliant. Every so often we would hear a loud crack and a part of the edge would crash off into the ocean. Margerie Glacier is stable, in that it is neither advancing nor retreating. It moves at about 7 feet per day.

Margerie Glacier calving

An adjacent glacier, the Grand Pacific Glacier is wider but is a dirty colour, which is apparently evidence that it is retreating. Apparently, we had a special day, in terms of the visibility and the willingness of our captain to position the ship close to the glacier. We stayed there for over an hour, as the captain slowly rotated the ship so that the glacier was seen from both sides. We were out on the observation deck at the front, enjoying the spectacle, even though it was very cold with light rain.

From there we headed up Johns Hopkins Inlet to see John Hopkins Glacier. This is very active, advancing at 12 feet per day. It is

Johns Hopkins Glacier

actually advancing. Again, we were lucky with the visibility and also lucky to get close (though nowhere near as close as we were to Margerie, because this glacier puts out more icebergs in a narrower channel, making passage difficult).

Turning, we headed out, passing Lamplugh Glacier and Reid Glacier. We spent some time looking for wildlife and actually saw a whale and some sea lions.

We had dinner in the Four Seasons Restaurant, one of the two large free restaurants. A table for two, by the window, was accompanied by a quite good meal. We followed with drinks and dancing in the forward Observation Lounge and then a dip in the hot tub. In fact, the hot tubs are very popular.

Tomorrow is our last full day. We spend it on the water, including time at Hubbard Glacier.