Hubbard Glacier is in Disenchantment Bay inside Yakutat Bay. This topographical map will help you get an idea where it is.
You can click on most of these pictures to view bigger versions.
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| Approaching Hubbard Glacier . . . I was on the Baja Deck (deck 10). The people below are on the Dolphin Deck (deck 8). Other than the bridge, these were the best places to see forward. |
Getting a little closer . . . Most of the time, I was standing behind someone, but at some point a woman in front offered to switch places with me. As soon as I got to the front I realized that she was only partially being kind to me. With no one to break the wind in front of me, it was cold! |
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| Closer still . . . The bits of ice in the water are "bergy bits" |
The line in the water is ice (what else?). |
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| If you're thinking that the water looks brown, you're right. When the glacier moves, it pushes rocks and other debris ahead of it. That's also why glaciers tend to look dirty. This one's not so bad, but Harvard Glacier looked really dirty. | While looking at these pictures, you should imagine that you hear peals of thunder occasionally. As glaciers move, the ice frequently fissures, causing them to groan. This was even more evident at Harvard Glacier. Here, at Hubbard, thunder sounds were usually late indicators of calving (when chunks of ice break off the front). I tried to get pictures of calving, but it's kind of like trying to photograph a meteor. |
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| By now you've probably noticed the bright blue color of the glacier. Wherever you see blue, that is a newly exposed spot. The ice gets so compressed under the surface of the glacier that no air remains and all colors are absorbed but blue. If it was a sunnier day, it would look completely white, however. | See the space to the right of the glacier in this picture? That's the entrance to Russell Fjord. Here's a brief story about it: Hubbard Glacier dams Russell Fjord. |
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| When we got about 3 tenths of a mile away from the glacier, the captain turned the boat so that the glacier could be viewed from the side. He turned off the engines and stayed like that for about a half hour before turning the boat around so people on the other side could look see it. Once he turned the boat, I decided I had had enough of standing in a crowd at the front and I went down to the Promenade Deck (deck 7) where there is a nice sheltered "porch" along the side of the ship. Also, it wasn't nearly as crowded and there were benches to sit on. | I have nothing else to say about Hubbard Glacier except, isn't it pretty? |
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