Glacier Tour

One of the things we most wanted to do on this trip was show the grand-girls some glaciers because, as hubby says, glaciers may not be around when the girls are grown . Sad, but a great excuse for a glacier boat tour.

We headed out early this morning.

Entry to Whittier is via a one-way tunnel**, with cars coming from Whittier entering the tunnel on the hour and those going to Whittier entering on the half hour. Mis-time your trip and you could easily miss your boat.

The girls were a bit excited about the boat trip,

despite the steady drizzle and gray skies.

We saw a few creatures during our 4+ hour ride,

most notably a kittiwake rookery and a pair of sea otters (the girls' favorite part of the trip),

Photo by Leia

 

but the glaciers were the stars of the show.

First up was Beliot Glacier, about 1/4 mile across. Serene and beautiful!

Then we headed around the point to Blackstone Glacier (on the right, below).

Blackstone, about 1/3 mile wide, was definite more active - we heard several loud cracks and watched as it "calved" into the bay. So awesome!

On the way back to port, we saw several "hanging" glaciers,

more waterfalls than we could count,

thick forests,

and Hidden Falls with its emerald water,

where the captain put the bow of the boat almost into the falling water,

much to the little girls' amusement.

And to top off an already great day, Leia participated in the Junior Ranger program,

earning her badge and being sworn in before the entire boat,

after which she was assigned to show samples of glacier silt to each table.

She almost burst she was so pleased with herself. Then we were back through the tunnel and headed home to Anchorage.

I think we wore them out.

 

** This is the longest multi-use tunnel in N. America at 2.5 miles. It took us 6 minutes to drive through to Whittier.