Alaska: Day 6 - Glacier Bay, my birthday, and "problem solved"!

We're now in Glacier Bay, an unforgettable way to celebrate my birthday today. Hilary and I woke in our temporary stateroom. It must be the fact we are on holidays, but we both seemed refreshed despite our little 'interruption' in the middle of the night.  We made it up to breakfast at the Lido restaurant, and set about enjoying the day while staff set about finding a solution to our stateroom problem.

And, yes, the Ryndam came through late in the day.  We were upgraded to an even nicer stateroom four decks above our original one, with a balcony view of the ocean.

Our stateroom, photo taken on our last day before disembarking in Vancouver-->

We were very fortunate. Apparently, our upgrade was made possibly only due to a last minute cancellation of someone who was supposed to board at Haines in the morning. Throughout our experience though, the manner in which staff treated our problem was highly professional, and in the end very helpful.  And the upgrade proved to be a pretty nice improvement!

The weather continued to be foggy in the morning as we entered Glacier Bay.  We stopped briefly to let a National Park ranger join the ship off  Bartlett Cove, just after 10:00 AM.  This park has is of such ecological value that UNESCO declared it a World Biosphere Reserve in 1986 and a World Heritage Site in 1992.


<-- Marjerie Glacier, on the port side.  In the distance, on the starboard side, is the Grand Pacific glacier.

The park ranger gave an interesting commentary about the region and the glaciers in the park as we traveled up the bay to the head of Tarr Inlet.  We learned how these glaciers have advanced and receded since 1680, when there was no Glacier Bay back then, to where the glaciers are now, 65 miles inland.  During this time, Huna Tlingit natives inhabited the region, moving their villages with the movement of the ice.  Today, the Huna Tlingit claim Glacier Bay as their spiritual homeland.
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It was in this park that John Muir built a cabin in 1890 and used it as a base to study glaciers. There, he championed a new theory, developed in Europe's Alps, that the Yousemite Valley in California had been carved by glaciers and not by the Biblical flood.

Thankfully, the fog had lifted by the time we reached the Tarr Inlet, the deepest inlet in Glacier Bay, and we were treated to the spectacular sights of Marjerie Glacier, a glacier flowing to the water's edge just in front of the ship. Beyond this, we could see the Grand Pacific glacier flowing into Tarr Inlet.

Marjerie Glacier-->

Margerie Glacier is huge, extending one mile wide, about 250 feet high, and about 150 feet into the water.  The photo does not do justice to its size and scale, or for the fact that what we see is only tiny fraction of an icefield that extends for 21 miles to south slope of Mount Root on the US-Canadian border. The glacier itself moves at an incredible rate, about six to eight feet per day, continuously pushed into the sea by ice and snow higher up in the mountains.  In contrast, the great Athabasca glacier between Banff and Jasper in Canada flows at just over one foot per day.

<--We could hear the ice cracking as the glacier flowed slowly into the ocean. 

The Grand Pacific Glacier-->

To the right of us was the Grand Pacific glacier, flowing from a separate valley into Tarr Inlet.  The Grand Pacific Glacier is an even longer icefield that extends 25 miles from British Columbia's Stikine region, to here, at the water's edge. It is easy to see in the photo why this glacier is called a 'dirty' glacier.  A huge amount of rock and debris is carried along by the ice as it flows into the inlet.

<--Ice  breaking off into the water lasts only a matter of hours before melting away. The water was so calm, it reflected the mountains above like a mirror.

Lamplugh Glacier-->

Next, we traveled slowly past the Lamplugh Glacier, another huge "tidewater" glacier flowing into John Hopkins Inlet. The sides of the mountain beside it has deep striations from the movement of ice and embedded rock running across it. This was the sort of evidence that John Muir used to advance his theory about the formation of Yosemite Valley. This glacier moves even faster than the Margerie glacier, at a rate of 10-15 feet per day, one of the fastest moving glaciers in Alaska. The ice movement is so dynamic you could hear the ice crackling deep within and almost see it move.

I found myself staying on deck for most of the afternoon, transfixed at the majestic sight of these great mountains and glaciers. Finally, we retraced our course to the mouth of Glacier Bay, and set course for Haines, our next destination in the morning.

This evening, we went for dinner at the Pinnacle, one of the finest French restaurants I've been to in a long time.  Before we left for dinner, however, I found some wonderful messages waiting for me in email and Facebook from friends and family for my birthday. Receiving them, in this remote, beautiful place was very special, and so appreciated.  Thank you!