Alaska 2024 - Day 12 Icy Bay
20 August 2024
Our next stop on the cruise was Icy Bay. As with other ports, when were travelling close enough to land to see the scenery, and during daylight hours, the views of Alaska's scenery on the way to our destination were spectacular!
We rounded the evergreen covered Point Riou Spit then slowed to approach the glaciers of Icy Bay.
We headed straight toward the back of Icy Bay, with the mountain which loomed in the distance becoming larger and larger.
There were a lot of sea gulls and I saw a sea otter as we moved slowly through the ever more abundant ice chunks and bergs toward our destination. The otter wasn't very close, but I got a shot.
Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in North America, looked steep, treacherous, snow and glacier covered, and beautiful as we slowly moved even closer.
Tyndall Glacier is a tidewater glacier that used to extend far out into Icy Bay and join with some other glaciers. Ships couldn't get very far into the bay in the past due because it was overrun with glaciers.
Now, Tyncall Glacier is so far back, a ship our size couldn't get very close at all. We could see it peeking out from behind a rock face.
Though a shadow of its former self due to the effects of global warming, it was still magnificent. We didn't get close enough to hear the thunderous cracks of the glacier calving into the bay.
The ship slowly did a 360 so all passengers could get an optimal view, no matter where they were viewing from on the ship.
As we moved slowly back out to sea, headed toward our next port of Valdez, the scenery didn't disappoint.
