Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early, bundled up and headed up to the deck. The ship was traveling down a fjord, a narrow channel carved out by a glacier melting over hundreds of years. This was unlike anything we had ever experienced before. The only way into this fjord was by boat or by flying overhead. The sides were steep cliffs and the water was dotted with blue icebergs. (They are not really blue but because of their density, they only reflect the blue. Or something like that. :)
It was gray and drizzly, but still absolutely stunning.
I wondered if the big cruise ship would fit down this narrow passage, but it did with no problems.
There were several waterfalls along the way. We were headed to Sawyer Glacier, at the end of Tracey Arm.
This iceberg was very blue.
It was cold, but that didn't deter us. At one point it was even lightly snowing.
And there it was. The light blue is Sawyer glacier. A glacier is simply a frozen river that does not thaw. It is deceptive, because this glacier is over a mile deep.
It was so still and so quiet and so beautiful.
Sawyer Island.
After we got as close as safely possible to the glacier, that big ship turned around in that small area and we headed out. We were so cold, so we headed in, warmed up and took a little nap before lunch. We were headed to Juneau in the early afternoon.
This was the ship's naturalist, Kathy Slamp. She grew up in Alaska and was an excellent speaker. We made sure and attend every one of her talks. This day she gave a talk about the Klondike gold rush- another interesting part of history.
I bought both of her books and finished the first one before the cruise ended and finished the second shortly after we got home. She made the cruise so interesting and informative for us. After her talk, we took another nap. (Hey, we were on vacation!) and then got ready to head out and explore Juneau.
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