Alaska Part 3: Glacier Bay

Yikes, I forgot about my blog for a bit there! I'm always in awe at the people that manage to blog every day. I can barely remember to blog more than once a month.

Glacier Bay National Park was the highlight of our trip. Although it was the 3rd day on the boat, it was exciting to finally have "real" Alaskan scenery. The usual cruise route goes partially in up to John's Hopkins Glacier and then partially up the neighboring glacier (I'm blanking on the name).

Our captain wisely decided to spend the entire cruising time in John's Hopkins and get reeeeeallllly close. It turns out that Johns's Hopkins Glacier is the location where 80% of the harbor seals in Alaska birth and raise their pups, so late September is the only time cruise ships are allowed to get close. Lucky us! The park ranger that joined our ship said it was the closest he'd been to the glacier in his 25 year career!

We started off the day in the Crow's Nest, which was the bar at the top of the ship with stunning views.


Although it was pretty cold out (we saw a few flakes of snow), the weather was actually pretty good. I'll let the photos mostly speak for themselves.














Glacier calving (pieces breaking off). Interestingly, John's Hopkins is one of the few glaciers that is growing - by about 10-15 feet PER DAY! Of course, there are pieces breaking off too, which was fun to watch. It made a huge booming sound that was quickly followed by a whole bunch of "oooohs" from the cruise crowd.








I think we'd all agree that the cruise through Glacier Bay was the highlight of the trip. It was stunningly beautiful, and it was amazing to be so close.