Blogs from Glacier Bay, Alaska, United States, North America

Slept in til 8:30 and rushed to get to breakfast by 9. Ranger is describing all that we are seeing. Camera acting up so my glacier pics are with cell phone. Going to try my SD card in someone else's computer to see if i am getting good pics. Very cold and many of us were wearing the same pink and gray jacket that we bought in skagway for $20. Very warm. Glaciers were spectacular. Captain announced that around 20 people were left behind from skagway cause they were on an excursion that could not return to skagway on the ferry. they spent the night in haines and were transported to juneau and flown by helicopter to somewhere in glacier where we sent out a tender to pick them up and return them to the ship. ... read more

We left the red inflatables head high in the shrubs next to shore. I've never had a bear mess with them but I always feel better if they are off the ground. It would be a long cold swim back to the boat if they got ripped up. I try to separate them in case a bear finds one they won't immediately get them both. Bears walk around with their noses to the ground and they seem to love chewing on the plastic buoys that wash up on beaches. After the narrow strip of spruce and hemlocks behind the beach we got into easy walking in open muskeg. But at the top of the muskeg we looked the sheer rock cliffs above us and couldn't decide which way to go. I'd loaded a GPS route, but ... read more

We spent the day on the waters of Glacier Bay and saw magnificent glaciers, ancient snow-capped mountains, whales, sea lions, mountain goats, cormorants, puffins and eagles. This tour is the only scheduled day tour permitted inside Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The boat carries about 200 people, so the ride was not as intimate as the boat ride we took into LeConte Glacier near Wrangell. However, it was a comfortable, heated, high- speed catamaran ride; and gave us great view of marine and coastal wildlife, alongside massive glaciers, and towering mountains. There was a National Park Service Ranger on board, who narrated things of interest and was available to answer all our questions. It was an experience of a lifetime to see such beauty. Photographs provide only a small fraction of the panorama. There are ... read more

Lots of really old ice. Global warming, however, may melt these suckers in 3 billion years, so WATCH OUT!... read more

Adam's Blog - Norwegian Pearl Alaskan Cruise: IF EVER YOU WERE THINKING OF DOING AN ALASKAN CRUISE.........DO IT Ok so we are a bit excited. Yes it is eveything they say it is and to top it off the NCL Norwegian Pearl was a great ship to take us there for a family. Sunday morning and we were well organised onto the ship and into our cabin...on deck 8. The ship was built in 2008 and the flagship of NCL so everything was polished up.As we had just spent 11 weeks as a family together our holiday was meant to be for all so a little bit of space outside the cabin if you know what I mean was the GO....so first things first the kids were booked into kids club and the adults into the ... read more

After the float plane left we tried to paddle to the head of Lituya Bay. I learned this: never try to paddle into an outburst flood. Seems ridiculous that we even tried, but it was easy, for a while. The tide was with us and the wind at our back, we made good progress. Then we hit a wall of small icebergs where the outburst flood waters met the incoming tide. We got through them into a semi-open water but the wind, tide and currents were no longer in our favor. Eventually Nate tactfully pointed out that we were paddling a lot and not moving forward... So our plans changed. We decided to stay the night on Cenotaph Island and hike the loop in reverse. Next morning the weather had changed and we spent the day ... read more