ALASKA GLACIER CRUISES
A luxury cruise in Alaska would never be complete without experiencing the majesty and beauty of Alaska’s many glaciers.
With an estimated 100,000 glaciers, Alaska’s glaciers flow from ice packs high in the mountains and are responsible for creating and feeding most of Alaska’s rivers. Tidewater glaciers flow directly into nearby waterways at the head of fjords or inlets which they carved while retreating. These glaciers can move ahead at speeds of several feet a day or suddenly surge as much as 300 feet.
Alaska’s glaciers are a must see on any Alaska cruise tour. Experience a “calving” glacier is awe inspiring as you listen to the creaking and crashing as pieces of tidewater glaciers fall away. The noticeable blue cast of Alaska’s glaciers create a beautiful visual panorama which is created as the dense ice absorbs all colors in the spectrum except blue, which is then reflected.
Our luxury cruises allow visits to many of the Inside Passage glaciers including Mendenhall Glacier, North and South Sawyer Glaciers and Dawes Glacier among others.
MENDENHALL GLACIER
Mendenhall Glacier, located just 12 miles north of Alaska’s state capital of Juneau, is the most accessible of Alaska’s glaciers (via the Glacier Highway) and lies within the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield. Mendenhall extends 12 miles from its source, the Juneau Icefield, to Mendenhall Lake and feeds the Mendenhall River.
SAWYER GLACIER
Sawyer Glacier lies at the end of Tracy Arm, a 26-mile-long fjord surrounded by lush rainforested valleys with cascading waterfalls, rock canyons and 7,000 foot mountain peaks. Icebergs dot the waters of Holkman Bay, the entrance to the fjord at the end of which we reach North Sawyer and South Sawyer Glaciers. The face of South Sawyer Glacier stretches one-third of a mile and actively calves icebergs with surrounding harbor seals lounging on these icey floats. Kittiwakes and mountain goats and sometimes whales and bears inhabit the area surrounding the two Sawyer Glaciers.
DAWES GLACIER
Dawes Glacier lies 30 miles at the end of Endicott Arm nestled within the Coast Mountain Range. With numerous icebergs formed as the glacier calves pieces into Endicott’s waters, we see black and brown bears, mountain goats, sitka deer, eagles, wolves, sea lions and harbor seas.
