When the area was first mapped between 1750 and 1780, Those first explorers didn't see what we now see. In fact, they couldn't get near where we now sailed. When they first mapped the area, ice extended 5 miles out from what is now the mouth of Glacier Bay. A perfect example of Global Warming, we now had to sail 65 additional miles north before we encountered ice. That means 70 miles of glacial ice has melted since 1780. It went quickly, too. Between 1780 and 1860, the ice retreated 33 miles. Between 1860 and 1892, the ice retreated an additional 25 miles.That's a melt of around half a mile per year for 112 years. This massive melt-off coincided nicely with the dawn of the industrial revolution. That the ice has only retreated an additional 10 miles since 1892 is explained by the fact that they've all reached the edge of dry land now, where the salt water doesn't melt them from below. But enough about that. You're here to see pretty pictures, right?
After breakfast, we pulled up to Margerie Glacer. Glaciers have a way of messing with your sense of scale, and it shows in the photographs.

How big does that glacier look? How about if I told you it was a quarter mile away? Well, if our massive cruise ship were parked right next to it, it would only come up just over halfway up. That is a 250 foot high wall of ice.






Margerie was just the opener, the main act was yet to come. Next up was Reid Glacier and Lamplugh Glacier. Reid glacier is "beached" meaning it has retreated fully onto land. It also no longer flows forward. It's basically just a melting slab of ice.

Still impressive, though.
Lamplugh was more entertaining.


Check out this meltwater font. Gives you an idea of how quickly these things melt during the summer. For scale, that white speck in the air above the font is a sea gull. And that gull is several hundred yards away from the glacier.

That bird looks like its flying through a mountain canyon, but its all ice.
The Johns-Hopkins Glacier (named after the university) was the most impressive of the day (it's showing in the opening photo of this post), though berg riddled waters prevented us from getting closer than 5 miles.


There were many little ice bergs floating around. most were car sized or smaller.

Here's one sporting a fresh coat of paint off the hull of our ship. This one was about refrigerator sized.


One thing that is striking about Glacier bay, is how smooth and reflective the water is.

Even without the glaciers, We continued to be surrounded by stunning scenery.

Another long twilight treated us to a show as we were leaving.


Just one more installment and this is finally done!