Glaciers galore


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North America » United States » Alaska » Glacier Bay
September 13th 2017
Published: September 13th 2017
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OK sorry about this but this is a long one……..



Well we headed away from Denali NP in the early hours of last Wednesday morning and drove the 340 kms back to Anchorage and met up with our Canadian friends Bob and Jen who had flown in to join us on the next leg of our journey. We all boarded a bus and headed out to the port town of Whittier which was the launching spot for our Alaskan cruise aboard the “Island Princess”. It was not a good omen when the driver of the bus told us that South east Alaska is the second biggest rain forrest next to the Amazon…emphasis on “rain!!” As we arrived into Whittier it was raining quite steadily which made for great waterfalls off the cliff faces but also made for soggy passengers trying to embark. For those who have not done a cruise before the operation of getting so many people processed and onto a boat was slick to say the least! Everyone is issued with a plastic card which you must carry at all times and is your door key, your ID and your credit card whilst on the boat (all things are charged back to you room as they don't accept any money on the ship)

We finally got on board and headed to our cabin, which was extremely roomy, unpacked for the week and made our way up to the restaurant for dinner.

They describe ships as floating cities but a better description would be a floating food court! Whenever you want food it is available free of charge…so close your eyes and think about what people do best when there is an all you can eat smorgasbord available 24-7 and then visualise what type of people predominantly reside at these smorgasbords!! I would not say that the majority of our fellow passengers are overweight but I am really hoping we don't see anything exciting on one side of the boat as I am worried about the boat rolling over!!



We headed off down the coast to our first stop which was a place called Hubbard glacier. To give you an idea about this part of Alaska it is very similar to what you would imagine the Fjords of Norway to be like. High mountains all around with glaciers as far as the eye can see every where you look on a mountain side there are glaciers in every valley and crevice.

The boat heads into these Fiords right to the top then turns around and heads out and as I said the first was Hubbard glacier. When the boat got into the glacier it stoped and slowly turned around and around so that everybody on board got a view. The glacier itself is what they describe as a tidal glacier in that it starts on land and touches the sea where it ends and great hunks of ice calf off into the water below making a mini tsunami in the process. These huge chunks of ice then become icebergs and as the ship was coming into the glacier the water was strewn with these icebergs and some had a number of local seals riding on top of them.

This glacier is over 100 metres tall and approx 1.6 kms long so it is huge!!. Whilst standing on the deck (in the rain) you suddenly hear a large rumble and quickly look to where the sound is coming from in time to see a chunk of ice the size of a house falling off into the sea. Because the sound travels a lot slower than sight the trick is to keep scanning the 1.6kms of glacier to try to pick which piece will go next so that you can get the full experience of watching it slowly break away and hit the water 100 metres below. The boat sat alongside the glacier for about two or three hours just long enough for me to blast of a couple of hundred photos of ice falling into water…Wow I bet you can't wait for the slide show!!??



The next day we headed into an area called Glacier bay National Park which as you may have guessed contains yet more glaciers. We headed up to the John Hopkins glacier followed by the Margarie glacier. These ones were a mere 800 metres wide but because of the depth of the water we got real close into them and had an amazing view. The scenery up here is phenomenal with huge mist covered mountains, waterfalls galore and glaciers just lying around not doing much for themselves. The weather again this day was misty rain followed by not misty rain followed by definitely not misty rain… in fact pouring rain…South east Alaska is the second biggest rain Forrest outside of the Amazon…yeah I know I've covered this before but for those of you who thought we are enjoying ourselves on holiday in the sun you are wrong! But we are definitely enjoying ourselves in the rain …it was wet but spectacular.



We headed from here through a number of fiords and the following day arrived in our first port of the trip a small place called Skagway. Skagway was the launching point for all the prospectors heading off to the Klondike gold rush way back in the late 1800’s. From here they would climb up through the mountains and either climb over the White pass or the Chilcoot pass dragging their belongings on sleds until some bright spark decided to build a railway up the White pass which was no easy thing as the pass itself is 2885 foot from sea level and like all mountain is solid rock.

We spent the morning walking around the town and visiting the local museum where we read all about the Klondike/Yukon gold rush (good Lord I am getting old!!) it was really interesting getting an understanding of what these men and women went through to try to make their fortune. For all you good Sallies reading this we also read how Evangeline Booth with 7 other officers climbed over the White pass and made their way to Dawson city to help the needy. Looking at the land scape and the trek of over 500 miles to Dawson city, once they crossed the pass, I am pretty sure that they would be the needy ones….anyway I digress…… as they say When in Rome …or Skagway….at midday we boarded the White pass Yukon railway and headed up to the top of the mountain. This was an amazing trip in old railway carriages heading up switchbacks over trestle bridges through tunnels and all the time passing scenery to die for (more about the “to die for” part later) the whole time passing fantastic scenery and amazing waterfalls…did I mention that it was still raining!! Anyway we crossed over the pass and the land flattened out and we arrived at our destination which was actually now in Canada.

When we got out of the train we were met by a bicycle rental agency who were the provider of our next mode of transport for our return to Skagway, which was now some 25 kms down the mountain. Now for those of you who have done some mountain biking….this brings a whole new meaning to the term “mountain biking”. One great saving grace was the fact that it had stopped raining and had been replaced by thick fog so once in put on our wet weather riding gear we set off at break neck speed back down the mountain side on the Yukon highway in thick fog….OK OK breakneck speed was a little exaggeration as I was overtaken by three turtles, a long toed sloth and three old people on Zimmer frames… but in my defence I had a slow bike!! ( not helped by the fact that I had my hands locked tight on the brake levers at all times)

Once I caught up with Steph and the rest of the group the fog cleared which made for an amazing sight screaming down a mountain side…literally….whilst seeing the town of Skagway approaching fast in the distance. We left Skagway late that day with all our skin in tact and just a little more appreciative of the fact that you can pray with your eyes locked wide open!! As we arrived back at the ship we saw a lot of salmon slowly making their way up from the sea to the local river and attempting to swim against the flow in the hopes of laying their eggs to start the next generation. Whilst we have feasted on salmon that last few days we were not the only ones as the local seals were having a smorgasboard of fresh fish compliments of the strong river current slowing the fish down to a slow crawl.



The next day we arrived into Juneau and Steph and I had booked on a whale watching trip which departed early in the morning just as the rain arrived. Alaska is famous for whales as they head here from the southern oceans to feed on the abundant sea life so we were hopeful of seeing one. The main whales which come up here are the Humpback whales and Killer whales and the whale watching company we were with usually see at least one or two per trip so we were extremely excited when just about 50 metres off the side of the boat we saw a spout of water. Now for those who have never been whale watching the thing you look for is the spout of water in the distance which appears as a misty spray. This is caused by the whale exhaling the water through their blow hole which they have swallowed on their previous dive. They then float on the surface for a very short time before filling their lungs with air and dive to the bottom to feed again. It is this dive which all budding photographers await as this is the classic view of the tail fin above the waterline which you want to photograph for the family slide night!

We were extremely lucky on our three hour tour (not to be confused with Gillian's tour) to see seven different whales before we had to head back to port. We had basically stopped looking for distant spouts of water when I yelled out that I had seen something ahead about a kilometre away and so we raced in that direction to be rewarded with a huge killer whale making his way through the water. We sat along side this killer whale for a few minutes before the guide told us he sees killer whales 10% of the time on the water…”so again we have become members of a % club! We spent the rest of the day walking around Juneau and boarded the vessel late in the afternoon ready to continue our journey south.



The next day we arrived into a cool little place called Ketchican and spent the morning wandering the streets before we headed off on a boat trip called “lighthouse, eagles and totems” and you guessed it…the main aim was to see all of the above. They have now thanks, to my eagle eye (see the pun!!) renamed the trip “lighthouse, eagles, totems, sea lions, humpback whales, Sun and all manner of seabird tour” yes you did read right in that line up Sun!! It has finally seen fit to show its face and made for yet again another spectacular day out.

The next day we had our last day at sea where we travelled from Alaska USA into the waters belonging to Canada as we headed towards our disembarkment (that's nautical language) port of Vancouver. The sun had come out to greet us today and it made for an amazing trip down and into an area called the Canadian inside passage which goes between Vancouver island and the mainland. There was a lot of whale movement today with humpback occasionally spouting in the distance and at one stage one kept out of the water and breached…absolutely amazing but made us wonder the wisdom of paying for a whale watching tour? As we headed down the inside passage we sat outside on the top deck and to our surprise our exposed skin changed a nice pink colour in the sun! We headed off to bed and planned to get up at 5.30 the next morning so we could be on deck when we arrived into Vancouver harbour in the rally hours of the morning.





We have now arrived in Vancouver and are recovering from a strenuous week relaxing before heading off tomorrow to NY…


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14th September 2017

You've seen heaps!
Obvious from the photos more than one ship in port at a time. We also went whale watching in Juneau and were told that the humpbacks don't often give a tail display upon diving so you got to see some good ones. We saw one with a white underside to her tail like your first photo. The guys had a name for her (which I can't remember) and apparently she hangs around the area a lot. Don't worry, the weather isn't any better here :(

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