Glacier and Wildlife

July 30, 2010

We took the 10-hour cruise from 10am to 8pm with Stan Stephens Glacier and Wildlife

and saw 2 glaciers, Columbia Glacier and Meares Glacier, in close range.

The above 3 pictures were taken at the foot of the Columbia Glacier. The Columbia Glacier was about 3 miles wide and had miles long of floating “icebergs”. Some of the icebergs were bright blue. We couldn't see the glacier from our ship. All the icebergs and large chunks of ice were broken off from the Columbia Glacier and scatter several miles long.

The following pictures and video clip were taken near the Meares Glacier.

Our boat approached the glacier...

The width of the Meares Glacier was only about ¾ mile wide. Our boat stopped at a place about ¼ mile from the glacier wall. We waited there to see chunks of snow falling off the glacier and generated loud sound and waves.

This video clip of glacier calving might not seem that impressive, but it was really incredible when we watched it live.

We saw many sea animals including humpback whales, staller sea lions, sea otters, seals, and various sea birds. The whales were pretty far from our ship, and it was difficult to take a good picture of the whales when they briefly broke out of water surface. The cruise was expensive but it was well worth it.

After we came back, auntie Amy went to the harbor and got some salmon and halibut heads and belly meat from some local fishermen. The fish were very fresh and tasty when it was fresh out of the pot, but it smelled fishy the next day.