Day 495: Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay National Park is over 3.3 million acres of forest, inlet and shore, mountain peaks, and glaciers. Wildlife is abundant, and I just barely found myself a grizzly (or is it a brown?) bear on shore.

But we’re here for the glaciers. Unlike glaciers in the lower 48, those in the park are retreating and advancing. One of Alaska’ most photographed features is the Margerie Glacier.

Why does the ice look so blue? When light hits highly compacted ice, long wavelength colors (reds) are absorbed and short wavelength colors like blues reflect back through the ice to our eyes. You might even catch some black. Makes for an interesting look.

The glaciers can move over five feet a day so seeing a glacier calving is common. It sounds like the crack of a bat when it’s about ready to fall. You have to be fast to snap a picture, but I did manage one.

We also viewed the Lamplugh Glacier. This one even had caves in it.

When you get a close up look at icebergs, they're pretty darn amazing. One might be a big chunk and the next one a group of pieces that have found their way to each other.

Even more amazing is that a cruise ship can pass through this:

Day 494: Skagway

The population of Skagway is 968. During the summer season it doubles, but back during the height of the gold rush the population of Skagway was as high as 30,000.

In comparison to Ketchikan’s 152 inches of rain a year, Skagway averages 27 inches.

The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad – built during the Klondike Gold Rush – is an “International Civil Engineering Landmark” and shares honors with the Eiffel Tower, the Panama Canal, and the Statue of Liberty.

Since we’ve ridden the railroad more than once we skipped it this time around. We did lots of other things. I went swimming again, all alone in the deserted pool. We went into town to find the quilt shop.

When I walked in I realized I had been in there on my last trip. That didn’t stop me from buying some penguin fabric at 50% off.

We hunted down a Thai food place that was supposed to be delicious (and devoid of tourists). Several of the ship’s crew members were eating in there. While I snapped a picture our egg roll appetizers I neglected to take one of our sweet and sour chicken as we dug in before I even thought about it.

But the picture that did me in? It wasn’t the beautiful view on the way up to the Yukon Territory.

It wasn’t the bear that was so close to the window that I couldn’t get a picture of the whole thing.

It was this one right here. Oh God. Take a step. Oh God. Take a step. Oh God. Take a step. But boy, such a beautiful picture!

Why all the Oh God-ing? Well it would be because that picture came from standing in the middle of this bridge:

This afternoon was the time to overcome my fear of heights. I walked all the way to one side of the suspension bridge and all the way back across the same bridge. No one to hold my hand, no one to cheer me on. Just me and my fears. (Did you know suspension bridges move when people walk on them? Yikes.) But whew, check that one off my list!