Stretching about 90 miles, from Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, is one of the largest glaciers in Alaska; Hubbard Glacier. Hubbard Glacier has survived the last mini ice age and we were witness to its beauty on a cold morning this past Independence Day. Our ship began to make its way into Desolation Bay early in the morning of July 4th. By 8:00am we were in between 3 massive glaciers: Turner Glacier to the port and Hubbard and Valerie Glaciers on the starboard.

Under the peaks of Mount Cook, one of the larger mountains in North America, we plodded through the waters. Icebergs, large and small ebbed slowly out of the bay and into open water as the captain of our ship made his way amazingly close to Hubbard Glacier. The differences between these three glaciers was amazing since they shared the same terminus.

We watched for about an hour as small bits of the ice fell into the bay, but were richly rewarded by an enormous swath of ice fell into the bay; we were told it is call caving (pronounced cavving), and I am not sure of the proper spelling. You can find a snippet of footage of the experience here (you will need Quicktime to view the file - about 1Mb).

I have been fortunate to witness nature in some of its more remote locations from my normal existence. Tops of mountains in 70 below winds, the very edge of the great Sahara to a blizzard in the Atlas Mountains (all in the same afternoon), a young bald eagle taking flight meters away from me, and this was one of the more awe-inspiring events I have seen…and thankfully caught on tape.

Tags: video, travel