John Hopkins Glacier

A calm but spectacular day( Weds 25) as we sailed up through the World Heritage Site of Glacier Bay National Park, 3.3 million acres of mountains, glaciers and forests. 250 years ago Glacier Bay was all ice, now that sea of ice has retreated leaving smaller, but impressive, glaciers at the head of many of the inlets. As we entered the Sitakaday Narrows we picked up a number of national park rangers who gave us a detailed description as we sailed right through the bay finally ending up at John Hopkins Glacier. The crew had opened up the bow and all decks and everyone was outside for our approach. The glacier is 15 miles long, 1 mile wide and 200 feet above the water line. As we approached the temperature dropped down to 3 degrees but there were warming drinks available to keep us toasty. The ship then proceeded to very slowly turn 360 degrees to give everyone the perfect view of the glacier. As we slowly made our way back down the bay we spotted numerous sea otters, a group of seals lounging on an iceburg and some mountain goats. After a good few hours out on deck we were ready for some warming lunch. I then went to a cultural talk on the native Tlingit people and went out on deck again to watch out for wild life. Finally we headed in for a Dutch afternoon tea and a rest before the evening programme begins.