College Fiord

Another day- more glaciers. But some of these are huge. Each one is called after American colleges, and the biggest is Harvard Glacier, which is just adjacent to Yale, which is to the right of this photo.

Harvard is so big that my wide angle lens could not take it all in when we got closer, our captain took us to within half a mile. It is three miles wide, about 300 feet high, more than three times taller than our ship. We can see it running back for twenty miles, and it really runs much further.

We watched as Harvard calved, sometimes tons of ice disturbed the water below, then floated gently close to the base, as there is virtually no movement of the water in this end of the fiord.

This is the East end of Harvard, piles of ice which has fallen from the face have built up at the base of the ice cliff.

The powdered rock and boulders that the ice has picked up on its long journey to the ocean show well on this picture, from time to time sections trickle down into the water below.

Just a short distance away, separated by a small hill, lies Yale Glacier. With the same source as Harvard, it can be seen here stretching back many miles. All of these glaciers were named by geologists who visited the area many years ago, most after the colleges they attended.

This one is Smith Glacier, flowing from the same icefield, which has never been named. This one looks really decorative, with the rock stream down the centre.

All the time we were in the fiord looking at the glaciers, our naturalist/ geologist Jules was describing the scene from the bridge by the public address system,  and giving us details of the background to these phenomena. We have attended several of his lectures, which he always starts with "Good Morning, Class!"

This is an Alpine glacier, in that it does not reach the water below, and this photo clearly shows the bowl it has carved in the rock, from when it did. Meltwater from the glacier tumbles down the exposed rock, over the moraine below. It is some years since the ice receded, as witnessed by the green growth on the lover slopes.

Otters playing in the near freezing water of the fiord

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Ancient Ice

Glacier Bay: what is now an inlet some 65 miles long was a glacier itself some 250 years ago. Now it has retreated leaving behind a series of smaller glaciers.

This one is Margerie Glacier, arguably the most impressive of all, and one that has not retreated for many years.

It is some 20 miles long, what we see at this end is 250ft high and a mile wide.

It is constantly calving, it travels at a rate of 6 feet a day, and we witnessed a few of its smaller ice falls as we sat there for almost an hour.

This detail shows the rock and ground up rock that the glacier carries with it and deposits as a glacial moraine in the waters below. Just above the darker lines you may see that the ice is blue, this is caused by the filtering out of the other colours due to the pressure of the ice that is completely free from air.

This cave was made by a collapse that we just missed, you may see the floating ice in the water, a tiny proportion of that which has just come down.

Immediately adjacent to Margerie Glacier is the Grand Pacific Glacier, even larger than her sister, but carrying much more rocks and other detritus giving it the appearance of a cliff face. But it is all trapped in ice, and probably contributed more than other glaciers to the carving out of Glacier Bay over the millennia.

As I noted earlier, the whole of Glacier bay was itself a glacier as recently as 1780, perhaps this may will show you how it has retreated over the past few centuries. From time to time it comes a little further down, but generally it is retreating.

George Vancouver was the first to see this area in 1795, at that time he was only able to travel 5 miles up the bay.

The Lamplugh Glacier also protrudes into the Bay, and is one of those that is now longer than it was in the middle of the last century and still growing, but glaciers all depend on winter snowfall at their source so things can change over a century. This glacier comes from the Brady Icefield, some 50 miles inland. This field gives birth to at least eight glaciers, falling in all directions.

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One of these is the John Hopkins glacier at the end of the inlet of the same name. There are more than ten glaciers which reach Glacier Bay, with many more in the mountains above that send their melt water down.

As a result we can see changes in the water composition, here there is salt water alongside glacial silt water, quite a change in colour. Some of these glaciers, for example the Grand Pacific, deposit muddy water into the bay, which settles out in the calm waters.

The waters here are very deep, the glacier which formed the Bay was up to a mile high, and carved out the basin below us along with the mountains at either side. This stream appears to come all the way from the top of this mountain, probably from another glacier.

Our captain revolved the ship several times so that we could all get good views from our balconies, and this cheeky bird landed on the next door balcony and took a good look at us!

All Aboard!

The White Pass and Yukon Railroad ran for 110 miles part way to the Goldfields, taking miners and chancers up towards the Klondyke, where the miners boarded a steamship to carry them on. In 1897 gold was discovered, and tens of thousands of gold crazed men and women steamed up the inside passage to begin the overland trek to the Klondyke, six hundred miles away, by foot and horseback.

Each person was required to carry a year’s supply of provisions, almost a ton, over rough ground, through swamps and over rivers. The track was only one man wide, so busy that if you stepped off it you could wait for a few hours to find space to get on again.

So when the railway was completed in 1900 after two years work it made things much easier. The track rises 3000 feet in 20 miles to the summit of White Pass, the snowline in these latitudes. The 3 foot wide narrow gauge railway has steep grades of almost 1 in 25, and in those first twenty miles passes through two long tunnels, crossing numerous bridges and trestles.

This trestle was taken out of service in the 1950s, at one time the longest cantilever bridge in the world, it is now falling down. I wouldn’t like to walk across it, much less ride a train over it!

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At the summit is the border between Alaska and Canada, we were not required to show our passports as we would not get off the train, merely doing a loop and taking the same track down.

We had expected to be disappointed with the views as it was raining and there was much low cloud, however for most of the way and at the top we were able to see some views, and they were truly magnificent.

At one point we passed a sandy bar with clear footprints of a large bear which had passed earlier in the day. Pity we didn’t see the bear!

Below us were numerous creeks and rivers, many running white with glacial silt, above us is the icefield which feeds rivers which flow both ways from the White Pass, unfortunately the day was not clear enough to see the glacier.

The Trains originally ran year round, cutting through the deep snow with special snow blowers. I will show more views below.

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As with Juneau, the buildings here reflect their frontier heritage, this is the Brotherhood hall, where the miners would meet when returning from their travels.

Almost next door is the Red Onion saloon, a famous bordello of its day, still serving drinks but probably not other services!

The Mascot, built in 1898, was another place that the travellers could meet to drink and play, with music till dawn. This is a faithful reproduction of the bar, in the original building.

Last night we had a wonderful show on board, ‘In the Bayou’. It was performed in a theatre we hadn’t been in before, on a set that contained no less than three revolving stages. I must say that the entertainment had been pretty lacklustre before, but this was great. We are looking forward to a similar performance later in the cruise.

Our steward is very talented; he left us this Polar Bear towel today, quite a surprise.

Another train lower down the valley.

We were 18 coaches long, with two engines.

This small lake contains glacial silt, which is filtering out.

A river 500 feet below.

In the loop at the top of the pass