Glacier Bay!
Yesterday mom and I flew to Glacier Bay..first we had to fly to Anchorage. Denali was out, but the engine was in the exact viewing point as the mountain..good thing I've seen it many times lol (I saw one of its glaciers through the clouds, possibly Eldridge). After that short flight we flew to Juneau..I saw some cool glaciers before it clouded up..I'm pretty sure one of them was Harvard Glacier! It has super awesome moraines. :D It usually takes an hour and some minutes to fly to Juneau from Anchorage, but the bad weather made the traffic back up, so we had to divert to Sitka to get more fuel. I'd never seen Sitka before, so that was cool lol. Eventually we took off and got to Juneau just fine..I'd never been to the airport in Juneau (dad and I stopped there on the ferry through the Inside Passage a few years ago), so that was cool to see too (we saw an eagle!). After a little time to kill there, we boarded the plane for Gustavus/Glacier Bay. I looked for Mendenhall Glacier, but it was on the other side! At least I got a glimpse of it. :P If I thought the flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage was short, it has nothing on Glacier Bay..it only took like 20 minutes! Probably the shortest flight I've ever been on lol. After we landed a bus took everyone to their respective hotels. After we got our room (which has great pics of glaciers lol) we explored outside..there are baneberries EVERYWHERE, which are super poisonous. D: We stopped in the Visitor Center..I showed the Park Ranger lady my pic of Harvard Glacier and she was like "wow, this picture is amazing!! Check out the moraines, it's like moraine pie!" OMG lol..I've compared moraines to chocolate on ice cream, but never pie! Awesome. :P I love seeing others get excited over glaciers too! This Tlingit lady gave us a presentation telling of their history in Glacier Bay..they kept almost getting wiped out by natural disasters, but always managed to survive..wow. After that we had dinner and went back to our room (which doesn't have wi-fi, boo! We have to go in the main building of the lodge for it)
Mom had set her alarm for today for 5:15, so we could eat breakfast before our boat left at 7:30, but she woke up, went "NOPE," and got up at 6:30 instead lol (neither of us are morning people :P). They had food on the boat, so it was alright. There were lots of clouds, but in the distance, there was blue sky and the Fairweather Mountains were out! The guide on the boat was like "wow, that's super rare, they haven't been out for two weeks!" Nice! We saw LOTS of wildlife..sea otters, whales, birds (puffins, cormorants, etc), goats, sea lions, and NINE brown bears!!! Two of them had THREE cubs, and they were in the same general area!! Wow!! As we got closer to the glaciers..it suddenly got sunny?!? Behind us were thick clouds, but above us was sun and blue sky!! I have no idea how this happens so much to us when we travel, but it's happened enough times to actually be kind of creepy! We must drag the good weather with us lol (on the same ferry trip I mentioned earlier, we had super awesome weather for at least a couple of days, and the day I got off the ferry, in the direction the ferry was going it was clouding up, but where I was, the weather was still sunny. WEIRD haha). And OMG..IT WAS AMAZING. Seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!!! I loved hearing the comments from other people ("Alaska is so rad!!," "This is the best 8:30 in the morning ever!!"). I love how excited everyone was! We passed glaciers like Carroll and Rendu (never heard of that one!) before stopping at Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers!! I've been wanting to see Margerie for years, yay! (Except there was a cruise ship in the way, but we went around them. :P) I knew those glaciers were near each other, but I didn't expect them to be practically touching each other! Even though they're right by each other, they're very different glaciers. Margerie is tall and "cleaner" and Grand Pacific is very dirty and more sloping. Margerie didn't look like it does in pictures I've seen..maybe it's retreated? It's also a very noisy glacier..I loved hearing it crackle and groan and the "thunder" as it calved into the sea. :D One of my favorite sounds! The weather was sunny and warm and amazing. It was so epic! After spending awhile there (not long enough, but it never is for me LOL), we stopped at Lamplugh Glacier for a bit (the Rangers call it "Lamplugh the Blue" haha). I couldn't believe how beautiful it was..I was like "I never want to leave this place!!" I'm so lucky to live in such a great state! We also went by Reid Glacier before going back to port. We should have gone up to Johns Hopkins Glacier too..it's up another fjord, but it seemed like we had plenty of time..we got back before 3:30! Maybe they have to be back by a certain time or something. And how is this for weird..the blue sky followed us back!! Yeah, mom and I must have superpowers lol. What an amazing cruise! Now we're just relaxing in the lodge (I really wish there was wi-fi in the room, but this will have to do /firstworldproblems)
Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow..maybe we'll try to get to Gustavus and get the geocaches there (we got earth caches at a couple of the glaciers :D). It might depend on the weather though. On Sunday we leave, but not till the afternoon..we get in to Fairbanks at midnight..I'm going to be so tired at work on Monday lol ("Gustavus" is really hard for me to pronounce for some reason..it's "guh-stay-vus," but I keep saying "goo-stay-vus"..weird :P)
Time for pictures!!
My ~awesome~ view of Denali LOL
Possibly Eldredge Glacier
The wing was in the way on this flight :P
*drools*
Pretty sure this is Harvard Glacier :D
*swoons*
Descending into Sitka
Hello Sitka!
I think this is taking off from Juneau
A giant whale skeleton near the lodge
Squeeing :P
Our rare view of the Fairweathers!
Interesting shapes.. (o hai Glacier Bay!)
Sea lions
I think these are pelagic cormorants. Dana, you would have loved this nesting area!
Puffins
OMG THIS GUY'S CAMERA. Wow. I still can't get over how ridiculously big it was LOL
Ooo, let's go over there!
Interesting to see how barren it got near the glaciers..
A mountain goat
A wild glacier appears!
I think this is Rendu Glacier
Good thing I was paying attention, or I might have missed Carroll Glacier! To most people I bet it just looks like dirt, but I have Special Glacier Vison ;)
BLUE SKY IN GLACIER BAY WHAT IS THIS
I'm not sure which of the Fairweathers this is..I asked the people at the lodge and they were like "uhh..I don't see them often enough to know." OMG lol wow :P
A bear with her cubs!
Pretttyyy..
Grand Pacific Glacier
Margerie on the left and Grand Pacific on the right
Margerie
Hey, that's not fair! Haha
Dirty glacier is dirty :P
Hi Margerie! So nice to finally meet you!
*drools*
Yay!
Sorry, I take too many pics of glaciers :P
Cool!
Yep, those two are very different glaciers
Goodbye, Margerie :(
BEHOLD, THE ICE OF MARGERIE GLACIER (I may or may not have hugged it LOL)
Why must we leave so soooon? *sniff*
*drools*
*swoons*
*flails!!*
Nearing Lamplugh Glacier
Wow Alaska is awesome <3
Lamplugh the Blue!
Amazing view is amazing
Wow
*DROOLS*
Lamplugh selfie!
SO PRETTY
Hello Reid Glacier!
Mom had set her alarm for today for 5:15, so we could eat breakfast before our boat left at 7:30, but she woke up, went "NOPE," and got up at 6:30 instead lol (neither of us are morning people :P). They had food on the boat, so it was alright. There were lots of clouds, but in the distance, there was blue sky and the Fairweather Mountains were out! The guide on the boat was like "wow, that's super rare, they haven't been out for two weeks!" Nice! We saw LOTS of wildlife..sea otters, whales, birds (puffins, cormorants, etc), goats, sea lions, and NINE brown bears!!! Two of them had THREE cubs, and they were in the same general area!! Wow!! As we got closer to the glaciers..it suddenly got sunny?!? Behind us were thick clouds, but above us was sun and blue sky!! I have no idea how this happens so much to us when we travel, but it's happened enough times to actually be kind of creepy! We must drag the good weather with us lol (on the same ferry trip I mentioned earlier, we had super awesome weather for at least a couple of days, and the day I got off the ferry, in the direction the ferry was going it was clouding up, but where I was, the weather was still sunny. WEIRD haha). And OMG..IT WAS AMAZING. Seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!!! I loved hearing the comments from other people ("Alaska is so rad!!," "This is the best 8:30 in the morning ever!!"). I love how excited everyone was! We passed glaciers like Carroll and Rendu (never heard of that one!) before stopping at Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers!! I've been wanting to see Margerie for years, yay! (Except there was a cruise ship in the way, but we went around them. :P) I knew those glaciers were near each other, but I didn't expect them to be practically touching each other! Even though they're right by each other, they're very different glaciers. Margerie is tall and "cleaner" and Grand Pacific is very dirty and more sloping. Margerie didn't look like it does in pictures I've seen..maybe it's retreated? It's also a very noisy glacier..I loved hearing it crackle and groan and the "thunder" as it calved into the sea. :D One of my favorite sounds! The weather was sunny and warm and amazing. It was so epic! After spending awhile there (not long enough, but it never is for me LOL), we stopped at Lamplugh Glacier for a bit (the Rangers call it "Lamplugh the Blue" haha). I couldn't believe how beautiful it was..I was like "I never want to leave this place!!" I'm so lucky to live in such a great state! We also went by Reid Glacier before going back to port. We should have gone up to Johns Hopkins Glacier too..it's up another fjord, but it seemed like we had plenty of time..we got back before 3:30! Maybe they have to be back by a certain time or something. And how is this for weird..the blue sky followed us back!! Yeah, mom and I must have superpowers lol. What an amazing cruise! Now we're just relaxing in the lodge (I really wish there was wi-fi in the room, but this will have to do /firstworldproblems)
Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow..maybe we'll try to get to Gustavus and get the geocaches there (we got earth caches at a couple of the glaciers :D). It might depend on the weather though. On Sunday we leave, but not till the afternoon..we get in to Fairbanks at midnight..I'm going to be so tired at work on Monday lol ("Gustavus" is really hard for me to pronounce for some reason..it's "guh-stay-vus," but I keep saying "goo-stay-vus"..weird :P)
Time for pictures!!
My ~awesome~ view of Denali LOL
Possibly Eldredge Glacier
The wing was in the way on this flight :P
*drools*
Pretty sure this is Harvard Glacier :D
*swoons*
Descending into Sitka
Hello Sitka!
I think this is taking off from Juneau
A giant whale skeleton near the lodge
Squeeing :P
Our rare view of the Fairweathers!
Interesting shapes.. (o hai Glacier Bay!)
Sea lions
I think these are pelagic cormorants. Dana, you would have loved this nesting area!
Puffins
OMG THIS GUY'S CAMERA. Wow. I still can't get over how ridiculously big it was LOL
Ooo, let's go over there!
Interesting to see how barren it got near the glaciers..
A mountain goat
A wild glacier appears!
I think this is Rendu Glacier
Good thing I was paying attention, or I might have missed Carroll Glacier! To most people I bet it just looks like dirt, but I have Special Glacier Vison ;)
BLUE SKY IN GLACIER BAY WHAT IS THIS
I'm not sure which of the Fairweathers this is..I asked the people at the lodge and they were like "uhh..I don't see them often enough to know." OMG lol wow :P
A bear with her cubs!
Pretttyyy..
Grand Pacific Glacier
Margerie on the left and Grand Pacific on the right
Margerie
Hey, that's not fair! Haha
Dirty glacier is dirty :P
Hi Margerie! So nice to finally meet you!
*drools*
Yay!
Sorry, I take too many pics of glaciers :P
Cool!
Yep, those two are very different glaciers
Goodbye, Margerie :(
BEHOLD, THE ICE OF MARGERIE GLACIER (I may or may not have hugged it LOL)
Why must we leave so soooon? *sniff*
*drools*
*swoons*
*flails!!*
Nearing Lamplugh Glacier
Wow Alaska is awesome <3
Lamplugh the Blue!
Amazing view is amazing
Wow
*DROOLS*
Lamplugh selfie!
SO PRETTY
Hello Reid Glacier!