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Our trip was
originally scheduled to go to Taylor Bay but at the last minute the cruise line was
granted a permit to go into Glacier Bay. There is a daily limit, by size, on the
number of boats that can enter the bay. This is a picture of Reid Glacier inside the
bay. Mt. Parker in the background is about 3200 ft. |
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The white spec
in the middle of this picture is a mountain goat. Get your magnifying glass and you
will see there are really six of them in this picture. We got some good pictures of
the goats today. We spotted about 21 of them on a small rocky island. A lot of
the people on the boat have yet to see one. A man behind Carla said the one he saw
was standing between a tiger and a gorilla! |
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The
inlet to the Muir glacier is closed at this time of year so the seals may have their pups
in peace. This is one of the few seals we spotted from the main channel.
Kathleen, a ranger from the Glacier Bay Park Station came on board to act as our guide
through the trip. She was great. Her talk included info about the land, the
animals, the Native Americans and poetry by a local writer. |
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The ship you see
in this picture is nine stories tall. It doesn't look so big because the glacier
faces behind are 250 ft. tall. On the left is the Margerie glacier and the right is
the Grand Pacific Glacier. The Grand Pacific looks dirty because it is pushing a lot
of dirt and rock ahead of it. The face of the two glaciers together are a mile
across. |
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We were very,
very lucky to have a sunny day for viewing the glaciers. It was cold just the same.
In the background, you can see the Fairweather mountains. We heard a lot of
'white thunder' from the glacier and we sat an waited for it to calf. The pieces
that came off caused a swell big enough to rock the boat so the Captain nosed the boat in
to take the waves better and we got this great picture. |
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| Karen left a plate of Dungeness
crab on the dinner table to get this great picture. She took off wearing her crab
bib and napkin. She obviously has some kind of Zen thing going with the camera.
What you are looking at is an Orca whale killing a Dall porpoise. The
porpoise is between five and six feet long. The Orca is tossing it in the air to
stun it. There was of a pod of six whales, two males, two females and two juveniles
hunting right in front of the boat. After they munched the porpoises they swam
around the boat checking us out and giving us a great opportunity to observe them.
Click here to view additional orca pictures. |
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Since we trashed
the dining room eating crab, dessert was served in the main lounge so the servers could
clean up. Here is the chef serving Bananas Foster. You get fed on this ship. |
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