Sailing into Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska - A Close Up Look of a Tidewater Glacier

Day  6 – Alaska Cruise

It was an exciting day for the passengers on our Alaskan cruise ship.
















Our cruise ship, Westerdam, sailed into Glacier Bay - a wilderness, a national park, a United Nation biosphere reserve, and a UNESCO site.

In geographical terms, Glacier Bay is a young land.

We learned that  just 250 years ago, Glacier Bay was all glacier and there was no bay. 

















It was a massive river of ice, roughly 100 miles long and thousands of feet deep, occupying the entire bay.

Unfortunately, as the climate warmed up over the years,  today, that glacier is gone, having retreated north.

Now, there are fewer than a dozen smaller tidewater glaciers dotted the majestic mountains of the Alaska scenery.

Our journey sailing through Glacier Bay National Park was an amazing experience!

 The sheer beauty of the mountains laced with the occasional rivers of glaciers was simply breathtaking!

Birds resting on pieces of glacier ices in Glacier Bay

We got excited as we saw glimpses of the tails of the humpback whales, the flight of the bald eagles and birds flying high.

Amazing scenery of glaciers at Glacier Park!

Passengers could enjoy the scenery on Deck 10

The highlight of the day was sailing close to Margerie Glacier, one of the few remaining tidewater glaciers in the world.  

Exploration Cafe, Deck 10, Westerdam

We watched the scenery unfolding in front of our eyes in the comfort of a heated observation deck at the Exploration Café.













Many passengers, us included, rushed out to deck to come face to face with the ancient glacier.

National Park rangers set up exhibits on our Alaskan cruise ship

The Glacier Bay National Park sent in a couple of park rangers who climbed on board our cruise ship early in the morning around 6am.

They set up exhibits and spent the day on Deck 10, the Exploration Deck to give information about the national park and the glaciers.


It was informative and we learned lot about glaciers today.

 In 2015, University if Alaska did an extensive survey about the glaciers in the Unite States and found that there 27,000 glaciers existed.

Of the 27,000, most of them are alpine glaciers and only 39 are tidewater glaciers.

Tidewater glaciers are those glaciers that touch the water of the ocean.

We were lucky today as we sailed by both of them, the Margarie Glacier and the Johns Hopkins Glaciers are both of the 39 tidewater glaciers.

The cruise director and me on board the Westerdam

Unfortunately, as the climate gets warmer each year, the glaciers are starting to melt and retreat so that fewer and fewer of the tidewater glaciers remain today.

We were fortunate that we were cruising on Holland America, one of the only two cruise ship companies that have permission to sail into the Glacier Bay National Park!


R.T.
Glacier Bay National Park
Alaska, USA