First time visitors to Alaska generally come with some anticipation that they will see whales and bears and mountains and bald eagles. Some also know that we may visit some glaciers and fjords during a week of expedition. Very few are prepared for a spectacle such as we experienced this morning at the entrance to LeConte Bay.
LeConte Glacier is known as for being quite active and dumping large quantities of ice into the bay. Much of that ice gets trapped when it runs into the shallow waters at the mouth of the bay. This morning, we headed into a thick, dense fog at low tide, hoping both for some clearing skies and of course some fine ice. We were not disappointed.
As the rising sun burned off the fog, what we found was some amazing icebergs, many displaying the blues that artists dream about; blues to rival any sky, and bird feathers, and any ocean. The blue is simply a product of light that gets filtered as it passes through water molecules, slowly surrendering the red and green portions of the spectrum. Most of us ran out of memory card space before we wanted to stop taking pictures.
After lunch, National Geographic Quest repositioned to the town of Petersburg, where a variety of activities were offered, including flights to see the LeConte Glacier from the air, hikes to visit an Alaskan muskeg, or simply enjoying the town on self guided walking tours, finishing up with a grand Dungeness crab feast for dinner. Another great day in Alaska comes to a close as we sail towards the sunset and tomorrow’s adventure.
