Our cruise included three days of sailing up fjords to view glaciers. Earlier on the cruise, we visited College Fjord, and on June 28, 2028, we visited the Hubbard Glacier. We have one more glacier to see in a few days. The Hubbard Glacier is part of Alaska's majestic Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which becomes Kluane National Park across the Canadian border. A couple of years ago, Dave and I took a road trip through the Yukon with our friends, Bernie and Eleanor Engelhard. We took a flight-seeing tour above the glaciers in Kluane National Park, and we may have seen this very same glacier from the air instead of from the sea!
The approach to a glacier is often as awe-inspiring and beautiful as seeing the glacier itself. As our captain carefully, slowly moved our ship up the fjord, we saw mist, pine trees and "burgies" (bits of icebergs) all around us.
Finally, we arrived at the main event--the tip of the glacier. Our shipmates turned out on deck, as a naturalist piped her commentary over the loudspeaker and stewards passed out cups of Holland America's signature Dutch pea soup. We stayed at the glacier for a couple of hours, with the captain maneuvering the ship this way and that to give its passengers the best views.
The burgies could be dangerous for boats and ships, because their mass above water is typically only about 20% of their mass below the surface. They are beautiful, with their spiky shapes and shades of blue.
We passed waterfalls trickling down the mountainside as we headed back to sea.
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