Capturing the Moment

  My hiking group, feeling accomplished, after hiking to the face of Meares Glacier, here in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Meares Glacier is a beautiful, yet mysterious glacier at the head of Unakwik Inlet in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Unlike nearly all of the other glaciers around here, Meares glacier is advancing. It has steadily moved forward since it was first described in 1905. As it pushes a mound of earth in front of it, the glacier bulldozes through old growth forest, upending trees with abandon. Today this is the wild area that we were exploring on our expedition cruise. Even though it was late May, it felt like winter in Alaska has hung on a bit too long. That didn't dampen our spirits, in fact, after our morning adventure we all took a refreshing dip in the waters of the fjord. But first it was adventure time, and we could choose between kayaking, skiff tours, or a bushwhack hike through the forest, to the face of the glacier. The winter rains and snow melt made our f...

  Team bonding in front of Meares Glacier. It was tough work, but we finally made it to the face of a glacier. We had been iced out until now this trip. You can see the pure joy in the guests' faces as they posed for this picture. Today's adventure was one of the guests and crew favorites. We were at Meares Glacier, in northern Prince William Sound, where a massive glacier tumbles out of the tall mountains and flows into the end of a beautiful fjord. It is a rarity among glaciers these days, in that it is one of the few that is currently advancing. It is bulldozing its way through the forest, taking old trees down as it goes. It also dumps an amazing amount of ice into the fjord, which is what made this morning's kayak such an adventure.

  Jumping into Unakwik Inlet like... Today we explored a wondrous place called Unakwik Inlet here in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This was the epicenter of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake. It measured 9.2 on the richtor scale, making one side of the fjord raise up 12 feet while they other side sank down. Dead trees can still be seen along the inlet on our way up to Meares glacier at the end. Meares glacier is always an exciting one to explore, because it is advancing instead of retreating, like almost all the other glaciers in the world. If you get close enough you can see where the glacier is slow motion bulldozing its way through the rainforest, knocking trees over and pushing earth in front of it as it advances. We had some guests kayaking and others exploring by small boat, but I wanted to take people on a hike to the glacier face. This is one of the most unique hikes that I've found up here in Prince William Sound. We landed on an easy rocky beach. Then we crossed a small str...