Summer of Fire, Summer of Ice

After a month in which we sweated through the hottest July on record, we’ve been pretty cool in August. Prague and Vienna were unseasonably cool, and then in Neustift, Austria and Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland, we spent a lot of time near snow. In Juneau Maddy and I went extreme glacier trekking, and then we went to the Hubbard Glacier, which is incredible – 76 miles long from back to front (we were at the front), seven miles wide where we were, and hundreds of feet high.

It is the largest tidewater glacier in Alaska, and is also one of just 14 to keep growing. It has cut off Russell Fjord from Disenchantment Bay before, and is expected to do it again.

We were allowed out on the deck four front of the ship to watch the Glacier – it was amazing steaming into Disenchantment Bay (named because it was NOT the famed Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Of course, no bay was.)

We saw a bear ambling along the shoreline of Disenchantment Bay. But, the really amazing part was when we got within less than a half mile of the glacier. It’s certainly one of the most majestic sights I’ve seen. One of the attractions is the calving – when huge chunks of the glacier break off in the afternoon sun and crash into the water, creating a booming sound and a huge wave. Besides the breathtaking beauty of the glacier, the calving also gets high marks from glacier fans.

We moved around the ship to get different looks at the huge glacier. The ice at the front of the glacier is 400 years old – often a brilliant blue hue, although not always. Also, as we cruised in, we could see Mt. St. Elias – the second highest mountain in North America – rising above a cloud. It was stunning in its beauty. Unfortunately, the cloud grew and we lost sight of the mountain – on a clear day, the picture of Hubbard Glacier and Mt. St. Elias would be amazing.

Although we could not get off the boat that day, but the Hubbard Glacier was certainly worth the trip!