Fantasy Caravan Day 45, part 1 - Glacier tour

Monday morning was cold and rainy... seemed appropriate since each other day that we were scheduled to go on a boat tour was cold and rainy!

We were going on Stan Stephens Cruises, on the Valdez Spirit.

Sea otters on our way out of the Valdez harbor

Oil tanker coming into to the port with pilot boat approaching to the tanker to escort it in -- a safety feature following the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989

Polar Discovery coming in to get filled at the Aleyska pipeline terminal

Some scenery on the way

Waterfall

Eagle at top of tree

Red arrow points to a signal tower that has been added to Bligh Reef since the Exxon Valdez disaster to better mark the reef where it went aground. The captain of our ship indicated that many safety changes have been made, and more environmental clean-up capability has been implemented at Valdez.

What's that? Sunshine? and a rainbow???

An iceberg near our ship

Captain checking for wildlife

Beautiful view

The captain welcomed any of us who wanted to be in the pilot house with him.

More screensaver pictures!

A glacier along the way -- you can see that there are a number of bergy-bits and/or icebergs in the water.

We came around a corner and there was Meares Glacier!

Looking along the face of the glacier

Examining places where calving might occur

Calving!

Wow! That was exciting to see!

Continuing to scan...

... hoping for another calving!

Front of Meares Glacier with narration by captain:

We continued to look for signs that calving might occur.

Harbor seals on ice

Note the reflection of the glacier in the water.

From USGS (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/why-glacier-ice-blue)

Glacier ice is blue because the red (long wavelengths) part of white light is absorbed by ice and the blue (short wavelengths) light is transmitted and scattered. The longer the path light travels in ice, the more blue it appears.

We kept on thinking that high arch should decide to calve while we were there!

Wave resulting from calving within Meares Glacier:

That calving was behind the high arched area.

Colors so pretty

Harbor seal hauled out on ice in front of glacier

This glacier is advancing (different from most tidewater glaciers) - you can see where it has pushed down trees along its edge as it advances.

Carl turned around and realized that the captain had left the pilot house!

Carl contemplated taking over the helm, but decided against it!

Harbor seal on iceberg

One of the crew members had pulled up a piece of ice for us to experience holding an iceberg...

It was about 40 pounds!

That arched area is still holding on! Anyone have a pickax to encourage it?

Seals on the icebergs

Sneaking a kiss in front of the glacier!

Leaving Meares Glacier -- continuing to watch for calving!

No more calving for us today!

A final shot of us in front of Meares Glacier

That's it for part 1 of our tour -- there will be another post with even more wildlife pictures!