Visiting Glacier Bay

So here we are, a few months into our trip, and I'm just getting my first post up. One might wonder why? Well:

1. Finding our routine from driving, exploring and daily life has been difficult
2. As it turns out, I'm reliving the internet of my childhood (my phone says 5G, but is really like a 14.4 baud modem)
3. I realized I needed to add some more features to the blog.

So for number three, I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to track most of our journeys, and so needed to build a way to show them. Below is our cruise route through Glacier Bay National Park, along with the points for where/when we entered and left it.

I also realized stacking 5 images would just be too much, so I've also added a carousel (It also still needs some work).

Finally knowing who was here before European Settlers is important to me as we trace our way through this country, so If you look at a Park page and look at the map, there is a section for Indigenous Territory Boundaries. If you expand it, you'll see data from Native Land Digital. I really wanted to show them all the time, but it got a bit hard to view. So it's still a work in progress.

Now on to the park...

We arrived in Glacier Bay at 5:40ish in the morning. I looked out the window and was a bit disappointed. It was gray and cloudy and I thought the photos and memories just wouldn't be what I was hoping for, especially for our first park. Luckily as the morning went on, it cleared up and we got some beautiful blue skies. Below are some photos I took throughout the travel towards the star of the show (more on that below). The water is an amazing shade of blue and sitting on the edge are these mountains. I really don't have words for how wonderful it is to see all of this.

Time for a quick small segue. When buying gifts for people, I try really hard to make sure it's something the person will find unique and use. Jena really won out one this past Christmas when she got me binoculars AND an attachment to mount them to my phone. I struggled trying to figure out what I wanted to bring for a camera, and didn't like the idea of lugging something huge along with us. But one should always have binoculars! I really enjoyed playing with it before we left. The photos are fun and unique, and I'm sure you'll see a bunch of them. And here's the first:

Around midday we arrived at Margerie Glacier - This is the one everyone talks about and is on the cover of most things. Current stats put It at about 1-mile wide, with an ice face that is about 200 feet high above the waterline, but with its base about 100 feet below sea level. The glacier is about 21 miles long and begins in snow-fields in the Fairweather Range where elevations exceed 9000 feet. Glaciers like this, if you haven't seen them - are truly something else. Layers and layers of ice that are slowly moving up or down the mountain (based on many factors). One thing that makes Glacier Bay so unique is that in the late 1700's the bay was all one Glacier. If your are curious of the movement, check out this image. The amount of information we have to study from this constantly moving glacier is enormous.

One thing we can not forget is this bay was originally home to the Tlingit. Many National Parks when created took land away from these original peoples. I know the parks are working to correct a lot of these mistakes, but it will take a long time.

Another thing interesting about Glacier Bay is that it borders up to Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park in British Columbia and contains most of the Grand Pacific Glacier. Everyone say hello to Canada!

I said above that Margerie Glacier was 200 feet tall and a mile wide. Looking at the photos, it's hard to really see the scale. I was lucky enough to find some decent shots with other boats in them to help show the size. The first is Margerie Glacier and the second is Lamplugh Glacier that we saw on the way out.

Well this is National Park number one, with sixty two more to go (rumor has it another one my pop up during our trip...). We have a lot to figure out as we travel. I'm hoping for some wonderful exploring, great opportunities to learn and to take home some special memories. I'm thankful that the three of us are all willing to try this. I know parts will be hard and there will be difficulties to overcome. But this hopefully will be a wonderful adventure.