Hubbard Glacier

This is the glacier that marked the most northern point of our cruise route. After spending the afternoon glacier gazing, we'd be turning around and heading back down Alaska's Interior Passage for three more ports/stops. Based on the weather we had the day before in Sitka, I think everyone feared the worst for visibility, but the glacier gods smiled upon us and cleared out the rain and most of the clouds for our view of Hubbard.

Stephen was particularly taken by all the floating ice as the ship approached the glacier, and I was taken by the stunning scenery, so by the time we got to the front of the ship for our first up-close view we were probably a little late with our oohs and ahs. This thing was definitely worth oohing and ahing over, though. Wow. That brilliant and uniquely glacial blue, the jagged peaks and massive size of it all, the three-story sheets of ice that would fall off the glacier and make colossal splashes at random (which is when the real collective oohs and ahs began) take your breath away even more than the very chilly northern Alaska air.

It was hilarious to stand there watching the glacier with all the other passengers from the ship out on deck with you, everyone trying to be the first to spot the next falling chunk of glacier. Cameras were poised and ready to catch that "Tim-ber!" moment, but much like whale watching your timing had to be perfect or you had to have one of those fancy click, click, click cameras. Guess who had neither. Boy, I'm a whiny photographer... This one guy made me mad, though. He kept pointing and shouting like a big piece was about to fall, only to start cracking up and making fun of us for turning on our cameras and looking. He'd wait five minutes and do it again. I'm embarrassed to say that I fell for it two or three times, too.

As caught up in the glacier's natural beauty as I was, the commemorative cup salesmen with their $15 hot chocolate were there to remind me that I was standing on something very commercial. Stephen, practical man that is, decided to walk the fifty feet inside to get us some hot chocolate that didn't come in a commemorative cup and therefore didn't cost anything. The ship's photographer was hard at work, too, with benches set up for people to stand on as he captured them with the glacier. "The perfect Christmas card" is how he advertised it. This guy was always snapping photos--every time we ported he was there with some animal mascot, every time we had a formal night dinner he was there to help us remember it. I loved how the photo gallery was right next to the main theater, so every time you'd be walking to a show or a lecture you'd see a new photo of yourself on the wall, a 5 x 7 photo you could buy for the low price of $19.95. What I want to know is what do they do with all those photos, like ours, that no one buys? What a waste.

Back to the glacier, however. Some interesting facts: Hubbard Glacier stretches over 90 miles in length (one of Alaska's biggest), it is six miles wide, has a 300 foot high face, and one surged forward so fast that it cut off the neighboring fjord from the sea. Humpback whales feed heavily here to store enough fat for their migration to Mexico, along with minke and orcas.