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Fifth Stop: Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska |
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Glacial greetings, everyone!
Today is another day at sea, but well within site of shore! This morning, we motored into cloud-kissed Glacier Bay National Park, where the air grew noticeably colder from the rest of our days at sea, and the water turned green with silt, lightly salted with iceberg. A couple of park rangers boated aboard at 7:00 in the morning and set up a floating visitor center in the Spinnaker Lounge to prepare us for one extraordinary day in this UNESCO World Heritage area!
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All at once, it became clear why there was so much observation space on Decks 13 and 14. As we approached Glacier Bay’s main attraction, Margerie Glacier, folks streamed out from all doors to pile up along the edges of the boat! The cameras, phones, and selfie sticks were out in force! I’d have to be super careful to avoid getting knocked overboard!
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Named for French geologist and geographer, Emmanuel de Margerie, this 21-mile long tidal glacier dips down from the mountains, where it calves off icebergs every so often to the great delight of visitors! The Pearl spun in a couple slow circles around the Margerie, allowing everyone to take in its sharp spines and blue gashes. It calved a couple of times, then went quiet again!
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While most of the attention went to Margerie Glacier, right next to it, disguised beneath layers of dirt, rested the Grand Pacific Glacier. This rapidly shrinking glacier actually filled this entire 65-mile bay as recently as the 1700s! Today, it stretches from this inlet within Glacier Bay all the way to British Columbia’s Grand Pacific Pass, 25 miles away! One day, maybe within my lifetime, it will have receded all the way from the coast!
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The sun came out as we motored away from these two important glaciers. I headed out to the front observation deck, specially open for the occasion, and perched on the giant anchor as we briefly spun around the Johns Hopkins Glacier. This 12-mile long glacier is super unusual because it’s actually advancing! The last measurement in the 1970s showed this glacier advancing at an astonishing 8 feet per day, but it’s not 100% clear just how much that rate has changed in the last forty years.
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Our time in Glacier Bay was all too short, and soon we were heading south, past Reid and Lamplugh Glaciers. As we passed Lamplugh Glacier, I spotted a group tiny kayakers paddling down among the icebergs and wondered how the heck they signed up for such an epic adventure! For now, I would have to enjoy the view from high on a luxury cruise ship!
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And so, after a rapid 6-hour visit, we were on our way out of Glacier Bay once again. It was simply stunning watching the ice-capped mountains recede into the distance while sipping a piña colada on the back deck. Much like the last day in Antarctica, as we left, the foul weather closed in behind us, sealing off this vanishing landscape.
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There’s so much appeal to these Alaskan glaciers—the textures, the colors, and of course, their importance to the ecosystem. The calving of these glaciers stirs the ocean, churning up nutrients for plankton that feed the whales! They’re also home to super rare glacier bears, whose fur is blue! This visit was pretty brief, so I can’t wait to get back up to these mighty ice rivers before they disappear!
Steering south!
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Fifth Stop: Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska |
Next Day |