Glacier Bay, Alaska – Calling all Baby Boomers

Glacier Bay – a sight to behold, although you need to be on one of those fantastic cruises up the Canadian coast from Whittier – for us it was the Star Princess in the month of September.

I’ve heard Glacier Bay referred to as “God Showing Off” which is so true.  It’s almost impossible to be satisfied with one visit – you’ll be wanting to go back to enjoy the majestic mountains, glaciers, ice flows and SILENCE!

Cruising Glacier Bay

The seven-day itinerary on the Star Princess included included two days cruising in Glacier Bay with everyone having their eyes peeled for whales, seals, otters, and mountain goats.

It was so fascinating to see most of the Glacier Bay surface covered with little bits of iceberg scattered everywhere like Styrofoam!

The ship arrived at Yakutat Bay with promises of seeing the famous Hubbard Glacier. This massive river of ice has 50 feet above the water and 250 feet underneath, plus it’s 6.1/2 miles wide (10.1/2 km) and 76 miles (122 km) long.

Calving of Ice

Now – did you know that glacial ice isn’t glacial water? The ice evolves from day one as a snowflake and when the flake is five years old it becomes glacial ice!  Happy birthday snowflake!

Iceberg, or glacier, calving is the breaking of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier – usually caused by the glacier expanding, and boy does it make a thunderous noise when the ice hits the water.  (We only saw small carvings, not like the one below).

Another snippet – the dirty colour on top, and often throughout the glaciers is silt deposits.  Glacial silt is a very fine sand, or clay, left behind when glaciers cut through rock. Often, this grit and clay is carried away by rivers, where it then settles and becomes sediment. (That’s straight from Google, but I wanted to explain why the glaciers aren’t always pristine.)

Mount Saint Elias, Glacier Bay

The ship quietly sailed past Mount Saint Elias, but on this day unfortunately it was covered by cloud. This is second highest peak both the US and Canada and has been climbed less than 50 times.  Note to self – next time I visit, go camping in Glacier Bay National Park and take a climbing pole along. (Who am I kidding!)

Margerie Glacier

While “parked” near Marjorie Glacier there were three calvings of ice.  The boom of these was LOUD but in reality, there didn’t seem to be much ice falling off the glacier into the Bay.

Sometimes the booming sound is because the blocks of ice that crash into the water can be up to 60 metres accompanied with large waves.  I was definitely quite happy with small bits of surf.

At one stage the Captain cut the engines and drifted into a 360 degree turn (yes, he really did) so we could see Marjorie Glacier from all angles.

All you could hear was the lap of water against the ship, cameras clicking and birds calling – there were American Tree Sparrows, a few Bald Eagles and gulls.  Apparently there’s another 53 bird species but they didn’t all come out and say hello.

Muir Glacier

This smaller glacier was discovered by John Muir.  The story goes that in the 1800s many politicians and their ladies arrived to name the glacier completely outfitted in their finest – top hats, suits, long dresses and petticoats!  Not quite the dress for glacier hopping…I hope for their sakes it was a bit warmer than the day we were there!

South Marble Island, Glacier Bay

Sailing past this island we say many sea lions floating around on their ice rafts.  In my next life I’m coming back as a sea lion – they never seem to have a care in the world.

The Mountains of Glacier Bay

The majestic peaks you see surrounding Glacier Bay are part of the Fairweather Mountain Range – so pristine and covered in snow whatever the season.

Glacier Bay National Park

The actual Glacier Bay National Park and Glacier Bay covers 1.3 million hectares!  But, be warned there is an odd sound surrounding the Bay that might frighten you…oh that’s right its called SILENCE!

After Glacier Bay the next stop was Scagway, and an exhiliating cycle down from White Horse Pass! 

Handy to Know:

1. July – September is the best time of year to cruise Glacier Bay. Either side of that the snowfall could be too heavy. (Plenty of autumn colours to enjoy)
2. In case interested – our 6 week holiday included:
   1. Canada:
   2. Calgary, Banff (+ helicopter flight), Lake Louise, Rocky Mountaineer from Jasper to Kamloops, time in Vancouver and Victoria (Vancouver Island). Flight from Vancouver to Anchorage.
   3. Alaska
   4. Anchorage, Copper River, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, eight days on Star Princess cruise following the Alaskan coastline from Whittier back to Vancouver.
   5. Flight to New York to connect with 11 day cruise on the Crown Princess up the cost of Nova Scotia to Quebec.
   6. Flight to Toronto with a day at Niagara Falls.
   7. New York (5 days), Las Vegas (4 days), fight to the Grand Canyon
   8. Home!

I would be more than happy to provide more details of this incredible holiday.