We set our alarm early for the day we’d been looking forward to the most. Today we visited Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve. This was really the entire reason we had booked ourselves on a cruise as although it’s possible visit this National Park independently, it’s much easier to see it on a cruise ship. We had also chosen Holland America as they have the longest association with the National park service here and we would have Park Rangers on the ship to guide and narrate our day. We arrived up at the Crows Nest lounge early for a scratch breakfast of coffee and crooissants and waited for the Ranger to give her welcome talk at 7.30 am. They also set up a National park pop-up store which was great for me as I have been collecting park Pins from every national park we visit in the USA. This would be my only chance to get a Glacier Bay one!
After the talk we rugged up and went outside on the bow of the ship for our cruise up the inlet. It was bitterly cold! The breeze blew straight through every layer of clothing. We struck some very thick fog in the middle of the inlet and I was worried we’d miss out on seeing the Glaciers, however we eventually cruised through it and were able to see some wildlife off the side of the ship. We watched sea otters float by on their backs, but the photos of those guys didn’t turn out well. However later on we saw a bunch ( herd? crowd? family?) of sea lions float past on an ice raft. The ranger commentary was pretty excited about that 🙂
At the very end of the inlet we arrived at the spectacular Margerie Glacier. It extends upstream for a distance of 21 milesfrom Tarr Inlet to its source on the southern slopes of Mount Root. It is about 1 mile wide ( 1.6km) and the total height at its terminus is about 350 feet (110 m) including 100 feet (30 m) that is underwater! It was utterly spectacular. We spent about an hour there while the captain rotated the ship 360 degrees so that everyone could get a good view.
During that time Neil and I enjoyed the special Dutch Pea soup that they served to help warm up the travellers. We went back to our cabin to take pictures of the Glacier as it passed us by, and also brought back bread rolls and coffee for our lunch.
Eventually the ship sailed away from Margerie back down the inlet. We should have turned up another inlet to see John Hopkins Glacier but the Ranger announced that due to the think fog in that inlet we wouldn’t be able to see it, so instead we stopped an did another turn at the Lamplugh Glacier. Lamplugh is roughly 160 feet high at the face, and about 3/4 mile wide. This tidewater glacier has advanced and receded significantly in the past century but is currently advancing. It was a little “grubbier” looking than Margerie with its extensive Moraine . One of the small expedition boats that come into the inlet from the National Parks headquarters came by and gave us a great perspective view of just how big the glacier is. We raised a glass of bubly to Lamplugh!
After we’d had plenty of time to admire Lamplugh the ship cruised back down the inlet towards the open water at the Gulf of Alaska. This took some hours so Neil and I decided to take a walk around the Panorama Deck again to take in the changing view. In the lower part of the bay we saw more sea otters and even a brief siting of a humpback whale – or at least a brief siting of its plume spray and it’s tail as it flipped over.
Tonight was the second “Dressy” night so we glammed up a little for dinner. I decided to wear my new Alaska charm as a pendant and we enjoyed a pre dinner drink in the Ocean bar before another wonderful meal at the Main Dining Room. We were directed upstairs and to the back of the ship near the window, a much more peaceful spot than last night! Tonight’s highlights were a delicious dish of Escargot followed but another tender salmon for me.
After dinner we went back to the room for a quiet night after our busy day to catch up with some blogging etc and headed to bed. As Neil slept I was scrolling through Facebook and registered that I was seeing posts show up of Nortern Lights sitings in several locations in South East Alaska. I checked my “Aurora” app ( downloaded specially for the trip!) and saw that we were right in an “Orange” zone, not as good as Red but better than Green. I figured it was probably unlikely but climbed out of bed to peer out the window – much to my surprise I could see a VERY faint green glow! I’d seen a Youtube video about ow to photograph the Aurora with the newer iPhones so gave it a whirl through the window and was gobsmacked to see that there really was Aurora green outside!
Poor Neil was a bit confused when I woke him but quickly realised that this was an opportunity not to be missed – we re-dressed in multiple layers ( it was coooold outside!) and went out on the verandah to snatch a few photos. We had quite a bit of light cloud cover and couldnt really see the classic “pattern” of the lights but we could see vivid green spots and a more general green glow ( a little like the sheet lightning you can see in clouds in distant storms sometimes) . It stayed very faint, barely visible with the naked eye ( as the ships lights were on and our eyes couldn’t adjust) but with the long exposure on the phones we could both see it in our photos. We were so pumped! It was a fabulous end to our day… a little hard to get to sleep!
