Ockey Family Adventures: Alaska Day 3: Glacier Bay

If Monday was about whale watching, Tuesday was about glaciers. After breakfast, we entered Glacier Bay National Park, and two rangers attached their boat to the ship and climbed aboard. We all gathered up in the crow’s nest at the front of the ship and watched as the ship ventured into the national park. The rangers spoke over the intercom, telling us all about the park.

We had to get up early to get some good seats in the nest.

We went out on the prow of the ship as it cruised along and the wind was incredibly strong! It was freezing out there. We only stayed for a few minutes, but it was breathtaking. Then we took up various positions on the ship and started spotting animals. We saw mountain goats on the steep cliffs surrounding the bay. There was a whale surfacing, but it was much farther off than those we saw yesterday. We even spotted some playful sea otters floating in the icy water.

Soon the water became filled with chunks of ice, and the channel began to narrow. Dax spotted a bear on the shore, but he was the only one from our group to see it. Then there were more and more ice chunks, some the size of cars floating in the water. We started to see glaciers flowing down the mountains into the water. The sea water became a blue color and was quite calm. All the ice was faintly blue with dirty gray streaks.

There were mountain goats over there, but we never got a great picture.

The color of the water is so lovely.

We saw quite a few glaciers.

It is fun to enjoy these sights with cousins.

Another glacier sighting.

Glacier Bay was beautiful.

There were so many unique things to see.

Mom loved it!

Dad, too!

Finally, we approached the front of the glacier. We didn’t know it, but in September, the cruise ships are allowed to go right up to the front of the John Hopkins Glacier. It is a mile wide and much longer up the mountainside. A second glacier joins it as it enters the ocean. Both were surrounded by ice floes and there were hundreds of seals and otters laying on the ice in the water. Then we watched as massive slabs of glacier ice tumbled into the water. Sometimes, there was an echoing splash sound. Other times, it sounded like a shotgun blast when the ice hit the water. We watched for around an hour from the prow, where it was cold, but not at all windy.

This is the main glacier we are getting closer and closer to.

We were really excited to see seal island, but then...

...We saw seal city!

The glacier was gorgeous. The blues were so cool!

We liked watching pieces fall off of the glacier.

It was amazing to get so close.

We loved being in a new National Park.

One of our favorite parts of the trip!

We sailed back out of the bay and headed around to Icy Point. This is a brief evening stop near Hoonah, Alaska. By the time we watched a movie and reached the port, it finally started raining. We tried not to be too grumpy about this, as it had been perfect weather for Juneau and Glacier Bay.

Mark and Dax did well in the skee ball tournament. They had tournaments like this every day for the teens.

Dinner before we head out into the rain.

We enjoyed our off ship excursions.

We were excited to go an adventure with grandma and grandpa.

Seeing another part of Alaska was fun even in the rain.

Icy Point doesn’t have much, but there is an aerial tram. We rode up two different trams, but it was so rainy that we really couldn’t see much. We wandered around in the rain a little. There was a pretty statue of an orca and some old shops in the abandoned mill. Dad even walked down and checked out the tide pools, but mostly it was just a cold soaking rain during our three hours in Hoonah.

So, we got back in the boat and had an epic game of foosball. They have an extra long table with 8 lines per side, so Mom, Dad, and Steph, had an epic battle with the teenagers. It came down to one final shot, but it was really fun!