Today was definitely one of the highlights of the cruise as we entered Glacier Bay National Park with rangers onboard narrating the history and science of the area. This National Park is only accessible via boat or seaplane so it is a real privilege to be able to access these, otherwise, hidden places. With the new Alaskan hat, gloves and jacket I'd purchased from a discount store in Skagway, I was prepared for the icy glacial winds.

The Tlingit, the Native Americans who used to live in the area, saw the glacier as part of the natural cycle of creation and regeneration. The explorer John Muir recorded the movements of the glaciers and documented these in a book called "Travels in Alaska". A scientist in the 1890's called Harry Fielding Reid did a lot of research on glaciers in the bay and did much to help us understand their importance.
3000 years ago a great glacier advanced and retreated as the weather conditions changed. The glacier carried with it a tremendous amount of rocks and silt. Around 1750, the glacier extended well into the south of the bay. According to the ranger, the fastest recorded advance of a glacier was almost 10000feet per day! It's unbelievable to imagine a river of ice moving so rapidly but, according to Tlingit legend, the glacier moved as fast as a dog can run - freezing the rivers and the salmon upon which they depended, chasing away the animals and dispersing the people.

Think of a glacier as a conveyor belt: in order to create a glacier, you need snow, gravity and time. Over time, if enough snow falls it will compact into ice. A glacier can develop in as little as 4-6 years! In Alaskan mountains, most of the precipitation comes only in the form of snow which is the ideal condition for creating glaciers. Most of the glaciers in the area developed fully 200 years ago and, ever since then, have been steadily retreating.

In the past 60 years, enough water has melted from the glaciers to cover the state of Texas in 17feet of water! Of the 16 glaciers recorded in the bay 200 years ago, only 9 remain. Every year the landscape changes as the glaciers retreat. A lot of the changes taking place are quite subtle. The lower portion of the bay is covered in trees and vegetation. In the upper portion, life is just beginning to take over the landscape. Lichen forms to cover the rocks and break it down into nutrients which will enable trees to take hold. Perhaps in another hundred years we'll find lush rain forests where now we only see barren rock. Alaska is purported to have the cleanest air on the planet - with very few cars and industry which cause smog, haze and dust pollution. So, even though the sky was overcast and cloudy, the scenery around the bay remained crisp and visibility was clear for miles with little atmospheric recession.

The Grand Pacific Glacier is the grandaddy of all glaciers in the bay, but it's retreating. It's coming down a smaller slope but extends 35miles and is black - you wouldn't think that it's a glacier! The front portion is the only part that remains in the USA. Just behind is the Canadian border. The Marjorie Glacier, on the other hand, receives a steady supply of snow from the mountains behind and moves forward at a steady 7 feet per day! It has an impressive wall of blue ice buffering into the murky waters below.

The Marjorie Glacier is the height of a 25 storey building and, like icebergs, there is more below the waterline than above. It extends 21miles back and 1mile wide. The ship rotated slowly for an hour in front of the face of this impressive, frosty-blue glacier. Looking through the binoculars, the stacks and piles look like an icy version of Bryce Canyon in Utah! We even saw a small section collapse under the forward-moving weight and constant pressure of the millions of tons of ice punching from behind. I stood on deck marvelling at the frozen rivers of ancient ice and the icebergs floating all around us, a very surreal experience.

I had to move from port to starboard and back again trying to get the perfect shot of a calving glacier as the ship continued to rotate in front of the impressive Marjorie Glacier. I literally bumped into Melinda and we got chatting about the previous day's activities. She'd done the cycling tour and had felt exhilarated going down the mountain near Skagway from over 3000 feet to sea level in a couple of hours. I told her a bit about the history I'd learnt on the ranger-led tour of the historic Gold Rush era in Skagway. It was an easy exchange of experiences and outlooks.

As we exited Glacier Bay and headed South, via the Chatham Strait (aka the Alaska Marine Highway), we cruised past dozens of Humpback whales spouting blowholes and breaching in the sea around us. At one stage it looked like the famous manmade Bellagio fountain show in Vegas - only, much much better! There were seals, orcas and other boats as well. I was in the Spa at the time - running between the sauna, heated ceramic loungers and whirlpool baths trying to get a glimpse of the beautiful marine mammals all around us. Everyone was whale spotting and pointing in various directions and we'd all go running off to the windows to get a closer look edited the ship cruised passed. It was quite comical and exciting at the same time!