Northwest Glacier (Kenai Fjords Cruise 4/?)

Alaska Travelog #12
Asea in Kenai Fjords NP - Sun, 16 Jun 2024, 2:30pm

Finally, the moment on this day-cruise I've been waiting for came. ...Well, two moments came. First, the dang fog lifted. Finally we could see the mountains around us in Kenai Fjords. And by "see" I mean see more than the first 100-200' above the water. We could see thousands of feet up... and blue sky above! And second, we reached some of the glaciers.



Even better than just reaching a glacier we reached one that hasn't always been that easy to see. That's quite a statement when 100+ years of global warming have sent glaciers worldwide into rapid retreat. The story with Northwest Glacier, in the photo above, is that it used to be past a gravel bar enclosing the bay. A major earthquake in 1964 shuffled that gravel bar under about 60' of water. Now ships can cruise right over it and reach close to the foot of the glacier.

And yes, those are chunks of ice floating in the water. No, we didn't stop as soon as we reached them. We cruised right on in... through what I called The World's Biggest Margarita. It was fun listening to the *thunk* *thunk* *thunk* of ice chunks bouncing off the hull of the ship. ...Was it also scary, in a Titanic sort of way? Not really. I figure the mistake the crew of the Titanic made was playing chicken with ice the size of the ship.



We weren't the only ones floating around at the foot of Northwest Glacier enjoying the sunny weather. A bunch of seals were out, sunning themselves atop the ice.

It's Glacier-ita Time!

Alaska Travelog #13
Asea in Kenai Fjords NP - Sun, 16 Jun 2024, 2:45pm

Remember how I quipped that cruising around in the ice floe at the foot of Northwest Glacier was like floating in the world's largest margarita? Well, while all of us passengers were topside taking pictures of the mountains, glaciers, icy bay, and wildlife, one of the crew was belowdecks chopping up a chunk of floating ice he'd hauled up from the water. And as we steamed away out of the bay, the bar was definitely open... for glacier-itas!



This "glacierita" is a margarita made with chunks of glacial ice. It does somehow taste better than a regular terrestrial margarita made with chunks of ice that are merely hours, or maybe days, old rather than centuries old. Maybe it's the glacial flour. Or maybe it's just taste amplification from the amazing scenery. Whatever it is, it's good enough that I'll have two. 🤣