On of the things I particularly liked about the cruise was that they had a naturalist on board who spoke about the various sights we were passing, and even brought about park rangers when we went to Glacier Bay.

It was, not surprisingly, rainy and grey most of the day. Yet, despite the overcast and drizzling skies, it was an awe inspiring sight. We saw multiple glaciers, and the ship just sat–presenting one side and then the other–at the glacier, so we had a chance to just sit and enjoy the majesty.

Glacier Bay was where I saw my first whale (in the wild, that is).

That morning there was a whale that came quite close to the ship, which was a wonderful sight to those of us who were braving the cold and rain to stand at the bow.

The closer we got, the more icebergs we saw floating on the water.

The land that surrounds these bays was formed by the glaciers. I could not help but start at these formations wrought in the land by nothing more than ice and time.

Glacier ice is different from the ice in your refrigerator. The ice crystals form slowly under pressure and individual crystals can grow to be the size of a football. Air trapped between the snowflakes is also frozen into the ice at pressure. Ice near the bottom of the glacier is under tremendous pressure, which allows it to flow almost like a plastic over the bedrock beneath. Friction between the glacier and the bedrock produces meltwater which further lubricates the bedrock allowing the ice to slide.

These pictures have slightly different shadings to them–the first pictures I processed were from the jpgs I shot. Then I went and processed the pictures using the RAW data, which allowed me greater leeway in correcting the color and light of the image.

We spent time at Lamplugh Glacier and Margerie Glacier. When I take the time to adjust my picture times for Alaska time, I’ll even be able to tell you which glacier is which.