Meares Glacier from Valdez (Part I)

From Valdez, there are glacier and wildlife cruises to two different glaciers — Columbia and Meares. Columbia is the closer one ... located in the bay by the same name. Meares is at the head of Unakwik Inlet and requires an 8.5-hour roundtrip cruise.

Before leaving home in May, I booked Meares Glacier with Stan Stephens Glacier and Wildlife Cruises for 7 July. Yesterday, with the promise of nice weather for today, I moved that booking. So, off we went at 9:00a ... under overcast skies that brightened as the morning progressed. By the time we had traversed the Port of Valdez and the Valdez Arm, and negotiated our way north of Glacier Island, the sky was blue ... the sun was brilliant.

Our ride, the Glacier Spirit, has a capacity of 149 people. There were only about 80 people on our sailing. Most of the passengers sat in the upstairs salon, so we had plenty of space to wander around the lower deck and our pick of the tables in the downstairs salon.

We enjoyed beautiful scenery and plenty of wildlife encounters on our way to the glacier, as well as on the way back. I’ll leave those images to another footprint and focus on the glacier in this one.

Meares Glacier, one of the few around the world that is not in retreat, is a tidewater glacier ... a type of valley glacier that makes its way all the way down to the ocean. This river of ice has a terminus that is one mile wide. Heading between Aspero Peak and Mount Michelson, Meares is 15 miles long. It is very impressive as it reveals itself slowly.

Tidewater glaciers are more prone to calving than other glaciers. Meares didn’t disappoint. I counted five good-sized carvings while our boat sat in front of it, turning first one way, and then the other way. Mui managed to catch all but one of the carvings, but the video will have to wait until we get home so he can process the footage.Baca lagi