Day 9, 6/29/2002, Sunrise 4:00am - Sunset 10:28pm, Temp @ Noon: 59º partly cloudy skies
Glacier Bay
Before we woke up this morning two Park Rangers came aboard at Bartlett Cove and our hosted cruise of the glaciers began. The most striking thing about this area to me is reflected in the following quote from the park brochure we found at our cabin door this morning,
"Enter Glacier Bay and you cruise along shorelines completely covered by ice just 200 years ago. Explorer Capt. George Vancouver found Icy Strait choked with ice in 1794 and Glacier Bay was a barely indented glacier..more than 4000 ft. thick, up to 20 miles wide and extending 100 miles... By 1879 naturalist John Muir found that the ice had retreated 48 miles up the bay. By 1916 the Grand Pacific Glacier headed Tarr Inlet, 65 miles from Glacier Bay's mouth"
So, this whole bay we are cruising today was a glacier just 200 years ago! Such rapid glacial retreat is found nowhere else on earth and allows scientists to study how plant and animal life returns to a glaciated area after the glaciers retreat. The ship 'parked' in front of the Margerie glacier and as close to the Grand Pacific Glacier as we could get for the better part of an hour. We stood, watched and listened as the glacier 'calved' off chunks into the bay! The Captain used those fore and aft thrusters to spin the ship in place and give equal time to port and starboard. We were in the vicinity of the glaciers from 9:30am to 12:30pm and enjoyed commentary from a park Ranger throughout.
After leaving the glaciers another Ranger gave a presentation in one of the ship's theaters. Early in the afternoon the Rangers were disembarked and we cruised out of Glacier Bay. Later, the on-board naturalist coached us through some whale spottings but I never saw one nor any evidence of one. At around 4pm the SE Alaskan pilots were disembarked and we headed northwest into the Gulf of Alaska at full cruising speed, bound for Prince William Sound and the glaciers of College Fjord.
Created on ... July 13, 2002