Alaska 2018 - Day 5: Glacier Bay

This morning, the ship picked up a handful of park rangers on the way into Glacier Bay, around 9:15 AM. More accurately: a boat ferried some park rangers out to the cruise ship, as it was moving, and they boarded via a rope ladder.

At 10 AM, we attended a presentation about the park, in the theater, given by one of the rangers.

Just after 11 AM, we went outside to watch the approach into Tarr Inlet, in the upper part of the bay.

It was cloudy and raining lightly, as we approached Margerie Glacier, but our weather-luck continued to hold as the clouds parted.

Next to Margerie is the Grand Pacific Glacier, which is the glacier that carved out (and formerly filled) Glacier Bay. It's somewhat less impressive, visually, what with being covered with dirt and rocks.

Grand Pacific is also the source of all the silt in the water.

As at Hubbard, yesterday, the ship made several turns so that passengers on all sides could see.

We ate lunch out on deck in view of these glaciers.

The weather remained perfect as we turned and headed into Johns Hopkins Inlet...

... to see Lamplugh Glacier and Johns Hopkins Glacier.

If you zoom in and look closely, you might be able to see the orange tent where two people were camping, by the glacier.

On the way out of the bay, we caught a glimpse of Muir Glacier.

As we left the upper reaches of Glacier Bay, it was almost 4 PM.

We had coffee/tea and snacks and watched the scenery pass by, on the way out of the park.

The ranger's boat came to take them off the ship around 7:15 PM, as we exited the park and headed farther into the Inside Passage.

We enjoyed a late dinner at one of the fancier restaurants on the ship (Italian, of course), and indulged our collective sweet tooth, in force.

The farther east and south we go, the earlier the sun is setting; tonight, it finally got dark before 11. (Picture from 10:45 PM.)

During the night, we'll slowly cruise to Skagway, and we'll wake up already in port.