Glacier Bay is a National Park and a World Heritage Site in Alaska. Just 250 years ago, Glacier Bay was all glacier and no bay. A massive river of ice, roughly 100 miles long and thousands of feet deep, occupied the whole bay. Today, that glacier is gone, having retreated north.
We had the most perfect sunny day with brilliant blue skies to take in the awe of this beautiful place. It has been 10 years since we were last here and we were then blessed with similar weather. Our last visit was in early May. It was interesting that the scenery was totally different to what we had seen before. We previously saw lots of big (and small) icebergs floating in the water and all the land was totally covered in snow. This time there was only the odd small chunk of ice floating past. The glacier was similar to what we saw today but with a lot more dirt in the snow today. I wonder if the differences are predominantly due to global warming or to it being in the middle of their summer now or a combination?
We sailed into Glacier Bay around 9am then made our way to the most scenic and iconic glacier being Margerie Glacier. We spent a good hour just floating around at the end of the inlet to watch and listen to the glacier. We were lucky enough to hear and see the ice carving but not lucky enough to get a photo.
At 10.30am we then slowly made our way to Johns Hopkins Glacier which was another very majestic site. I don't remember having seen this glacier on our last visit but well worth it although the ship cannot get up as close to the glacier as Margerie,
We then started to make our way out of Glacier Bay. It was just glorious sitting up on deck 14 bathed in sunshine with a cold glass of wine to marvel at the spectacular scenery as we slowly slinked out of the bay.
By mid afternoon we had dropped off our visiting park rangers who were very knowledgeable and were back in Icy Strait making our way to Juneau, our next port of call.
Another fabulous day at sea aboard the Sun Princess.
Approaching Margerie Glacier
The dirt in the snow at the face of Margerie Glacier
Margerie Glacier
Some of the beautiful blue snow
A lone iceberg
The view across the ship on deck 15
Lamplugh Glacier
Approaching Johns Hopkins Glacier and the remains of Topeka Glacier
Johns Hopkins Glacier
A zoomed in view of Johns Hopkins Glacier
A break for some fresh Alaskan salmon for lunch
Leaving the Glacier Bay National Park
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