After leaving Tracy Arm Fjord, we sailed into Juneau, capital of Alaska. I've noticed Alaskan have spelling issues--they spell "Ford" with an extra j: "Fjord" and "Juno" with all kinds of extra letters: "Juneau". I could hardly complain since as a Montanan, I spell "Beaut" in this nonsensical way: "Butte".
We got cozy with the other Joneses and headed off to our next adventure.
Our first stop was Mendenhall Glacier. It is not a big glacier, but it is easily accessible.
Hundreds of years ago, the glacier used to extend clear into the heart of the city (which must have been inconvenient), but like everything else in the world is rapidly melting.
Pieces of the glacier break off and float in the water below on a regular basis.
One of the things that makes Alaska beautiful is the way dazzling green plants grow all around the snow on the mountains.
A view opposite the glacier. We saw people swimming in this area, but my official toe test deemed it "are you kidding???--too cold".
This waterfall is right next to the glacier. Note the people at the bottom for size perspective. The sand on the beach almost made it feel like Hawaii. Almost.
More of those beautiful turquoise icebergs.
The fam.
The glacier was quite dirty looking. Our bus driver told us that it takes about 150 feet of compacted snow to make 1 foot of glacier
ice. That dirty look is apparently a feature of all Alaskan icebergs. You can see both the waterfall and glacier in this shot.
Beautiful Alaska!
The rocks showing the scraping of the glacier when it was big enough to still be in this area.
Next we boarded a boat to go look for whales. The cost of our expedition guaranteed a whale sighting or a sizable refund.
We looked and looked. Boat rides are windy affairs and standing out in the wind for what seemed like hours looking for a whale proved to be less than thrilling.
I was beginning to be pretty confident we had a refund coming our way when...
we started spotting spouts of water in the distance.
Thar she blows!
We came upon a group of 6 or more whales--a very unusual event. Humpback whales are solitary and seldom are seen in groups.
They come together when they find an especially large group of fish.
They create bubbles in the water, causing the fish to panic and draw into a tight circle. Then the whales encircle them and dive in a spiral pattern, feeding as they go.
A humpback whale's throat is only as big as a grapefruit, so they are constantly eating large amounts of small fish.
Generally speaking, you only see two whales together if one of them is a baby. After eating and eating, these Alaskan whales go to Hawaii in the winter and give birth after a one year pregnancy. They do not eat until they swim home 4 or 5 months later. Meanwhile, their calves are nursing and getting fat for the journey back to Alaska.
That's quite the diet plan.
Although generally alone, whales will reunite with the same whales in a group to do these large feedings. We were lucky to have been able to see this relatively rare behavior.
We also saw a couple of seals hanging out on this buoy.
It was an amazing experience to see these whales in the wild--well worth the windy wait!
2 comments:
What an awesome whale sighting! I totally think EVERY woman deserves to go to Hawaii to give birth. Of course, whales don't have to squeeze themselves into a swimsuit. In fact, the bigger the better. We should be more like whales.
Some great photos. Love the glacier and waterfall, kind of a two for one, and the whale family reunion shot. Maybe it was a baby shower. Great post Krysteen.
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