Anyways, since boarding the ship we've done nothing but sleep, eat, and run back and forth between the port and starboard sides of the ship in hopes of seeing a whale. Well the latter isn't entirely true but some people are rather fanatic about seeing wildlife. To the point that they got up early on our cruising days to stand outside, camera ready, in case a whale decided to show up. That's a bit intense by my standards but I've seen a whale already so I've filled my yearly quota.
We spent the first two days on the cruise sailing through two different bays. On Sunday we cruised to Yakutat Bay - the bay that is home to the famous Hubbard Glacier. It was a rather overcast day but to our luck, the glacier was out. This was actually the first time in three weeks that the glacier was showing so we have been blessed by the weather gods this trip. It is a tidewater glacier - which probably means nothing to those of you who haven't seen glaciers. So time for a lesson!
First of all, a glacier, according to Merriam-Webster, is a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface. Many glaciers, especially those in Alaska, are formed from ice fields. For a glacier to grow, snow and ice accumulation much exceed ablation, or the erosion of a glacier. Thus, most glaciers are receding but there are a few that are advancing.
Now glaciers are classified in three common classes. There are Alpine Glaciers, Ice Sheets and Tidewater Glaciers. They form on mountain slopes and can be known as cirque glaciers. If one fills a valley, it is called a Valley Glacier.
Ice Sheets are the largest of glaciers and are more commonly known as Antarctica and Greenland. So I won't be discussing those.
Tidewater glaciers are those that terminate in the sea and are the ones we saw the most. They calve (break off) into the sea and form icebergs. They are most often formed from large ice fields.
That concludes today's short glacier lesson. Now here are some examples with photos and captions. There will be a quiz following the blog. :)
In Yakutat Bay, we saw the Hubbard Glacier, a tidewater glacier. It is the largest one in the Alaska and we saw it up close.
Hubbard Glacier
This glacier is really dirty.
We also got some shots of the glacier calving - which is what everyone wants to see and hear.
Beginning of a Calve
End of a Calve - I would've added all the photos to show the succession of the calve but that would be a lot of photos.
And we found this friend who was chilling on an iceberg nearby
The next day the entire ship awoke by 8 a.m. to see us enter into Glacier Bay. I, however, had drunk 1/2 a bottle of wine and was nursing a rather viscous headache all morning so I was not interested in whales, glaciers or anything but a bed. After sleeping off the headache, I awoke to see the glaciers in Glacier Bay and even caught sight of some whales by the end of the day. It was another gorgeous day - seriously unbelievable. Cool but the sun was warm. They rangers said it was one of the best days they've had in awhile.
We had so many more photos but it's hard to put them all up so I need to be picky and choose just a few. Hope this is a nice taste of what we saw. The glaciers were beautiful and the park was pristine. I recommend visiting as soon as you are able since the glaciers keep receding and they might not be around if you wait too long.
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