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Monday, September 7, 2015

Checking out the glaciers...

On the day that we stopped off at Juneau, we had to be back on the ship by 12.30 as the captain would be taking us for a cruise up close to a glacier by mid afternoon. The itinerary stated that we would visit the Tracy Arm Fiord and the Sawyer Glaciers, but a storm warning for that area, saw the captain change the plan to Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Fiord.
I've written a little about this wonderful afternoon in my Overview blog post, so this post will feature more of the photos that we took that afternoon.
The ship just seem to glide quietly along and DH and I were just taking it easy; me crocheting, with him watching TV. Then I looked up from my crocheting and noticed ice floating in the water. We were sailing in the fiord.




These ice floes just kept on coming so then we took up vantage points on the balcony and got the cameras and binoculars out ready. Even though most people were on their balconies, chattering excitedly, it was still so quiet and peaceful in the fiord.
The steep walls of the fiord were so interesting to look at as well...there were lots of waterfalls...
Trees clinging to the slopes...



The misty rain 'produced' a number of rainbows as we sailed along...

After a while I noticed that the ice floes were getting larger...and some were quite oddly shaped :-) And some had patches of blue.



Our ship wasn't the only one in the fiord that afternoon...


And then I noticed that many of the ice floes were decidedly blue in colour, not just patchy...
We soon saw smaller glaciers...they were 'perched' up high and had streams flowing from them...



As the ship sailed on, we could see a much larger glacier in the distance...
As we neared this larger glacier (Dawes), the captain started to turn the ship; 360 degree turns so that everyone of the ship was able to get a good view...to say we were awestruck would not be too over the top! And the blue colour! That explained the blue ice floes.

 I believe the ship got within 1/2 mile of the glacier...we could see all the fissures/crevasses in the ice.



 And just a few favourite photos to finish off this post.





3 comments:

Nanette said...

Magical Maria, what a wonderful experience!

angela said...

Magnificent! Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing xx

margaret said...

this will be a trip you will remember for a lifetime, how amazing to see all the ice and the glacier along with some lovely scenery