Rivers of blue ice
Flowing down the mountainside
Merge into beauty.
This morning we awoke near the headwaters of Johns Hopkins Inlet in Glacier Bay National Park. It was a most astonishing morning, for before us were two of the most spectacular tidewater glaciers within this 3,328,000-acre World Heritage Site. Wind, tides, ice, and fortune were with us as we were able to travel to within a half-mile of the face of the Johns Hopkins and Gillman glaciers. In ten years of visiting this region I have never been so close to the face of either of these two glaciers. It was a rare treat to be so far up fjord and photograph these two glaciers which have recently reconnected. Here, in Glacier Bay, the dynamics of the Great Ice Age - and the current Neoglacial period - are truly apparent. Before us stood a massive wall of ice more than a mile across and 250 feet high. Though only a remnant of the enormous amounts of ice that once covered this entire region, these glaciers still held us captivated. The "cracks" and "booms" of internally shifting ice mixed with the thunderous echoes of ice calving into the fjord bespoke the immense power of ice. Standing upon the bow of the Sea Lion, surrounded by towering mountains virtually void of vegetation, we could envision the power of ice which had sculpted the landscape. It was hard not to be impressed by the raw beauty before us.
Glaciers are both beautiful and mysterious. Having once covered over 30 percent of the earth's landmass, glaciers have created some of the most incredible scenery on earth. Indeed, all that we see and travel through in South East Alaska has been sculpted by an icy hand.
Flowing down the mountainside
Merge into beauty.
This morning we awoke near the headwaters of Johns Hopkins Inlet in Glacier Bay National Park. It was a most astonishing morning, for before us were two of the most spectacular tidewater glaciers within this 3,328,000-acre World Heritage Site. Wind, tides, ice, and fortune were with us as we were able to travel to within a half-mile of the face of the Johns Hopkins and Gillman glaciers. In ten years of visiting this region I have never been so close to the face of either of these two glaciers. It was a rare treat to be so far up fjord and photograph these two glaciers which have recently reconnected. Here, in Glacier Bay, the dynamics of the Great Ice Age - and the current Neoglacial period - are truly apparent. Before us stood a massive wall of ice more than a mile across and 250 feet high. Though only a remnant of the enormous amounts of ice that once covered this entire region, these glaciers still held us captivated. The "cracks" and "booms" of internally shifting ice mixed with the thunderous echoes of ice calving into the fjord bespoke the immense power of ice. Standing upon the bow of the Sea Lion, surrounded by towering mountains virtually void of vegetation, we could envision the power of ice which had sculpted the landscape. It was hard not to be impressed by the raw beauty before us.
Glaciers are both beautiful and mysterious. Having once covered over 30 percent of the earth's landmass, glaciers have created some of the most incredible scenery on earth. Indeed, all that we see and travel through in South East Alaska has been sculpted by an icy hand.
