GLACIER BAY

Another day of blue skies and sunshine making a glorious backdrop to the amazing and inspiring scenery of Glacier Bay. 250 years ago this was a glacier with no bay, just a massive river of ice, roughly 100 miles long and thousands of feet deep. Today that glacier has gone but some impressive smaller tidewater glaciers remain. The Tlingit people lived here originally and John Muir who established Yosemite Park came here to study the glacier and to champion the 'new' theory that Yosemite Valley had been carved by glaciers not biblical flood.

We entered by the Marble Islands, where seals were resting, and proceeded up the bay getting our first sight of a glacier at Reid Glacier. We saw several sea otters. We then continued to Margerie Glacier which did not disappoint and gave us a marvellous show of carving accompanied by the crashing sound of the ice hitting the water and followed by a powerful wave of ice which rocked even our cruise ship. Before the carving there were some small areas of ice falling into the sea but when the 'big' one broke off the water became filled with icebergs and ice fragments. We were extremely lucky as this all happened on the port side right in front of our balcony. We spent 2 hours at the Glacier face before heading out and then turning to see Lamplugh Glacier and John Hopkins, we couldn't get too close to the latter as baby harbour seals were using the slabs of ice as bassinets and ships were not allow too close in.

We were in this area with just one small boat and as we left Margerie Glacier another cruise ship took our place. Rangers were on board all day and were updating and informing us about the area.

Tonight was the second Gala Night of the cruise and we had a very pleasant evening dinning with Cheryl, Ted and their friends Rebecca and John.Read more