Day 13, Glacier Bay

We arrive at the entrance to Glacier Bay National Park early in the morning and pick up the naturalists who will keep us informed about the area. The cruise into Glacier Bay is beautiful (I know that word is overused in my descriptions, but what can I say -- it fits.). Along the way we see magnificent scenery, glacially cut valleys, a couple of glaciers in the distance, and snow capped peaks. We cruise on to the end of the bay, where the Great Pacific Glacier blocks the end of the fjord. Great Pacific glacier and Margerie glacier are at the terminus of the bay. These are known as the night and day glaciers. Great Pacific glacier actually looks like a wall of dirt and rock because it picks up dirt as it moves through its valley. Margerie glacier is white and blue since it moves through a mostly rock valley. We spend about an hour to an hour and a half viewing these glaciers. We spend most of that time viewing Margerie glacier. We see several calvings. On our return trip out of the bay, we turn into the Johns Hopkins inlet where we see the Reid glacier up close and the Johns Hopkins glacier from a distance. We continue cruising back to the park entrance where we drop off the naturalists.