The Swanson's Alaska Trip

Glacier Bay -- June 12, 2000

Updated October 11, 2007

We wanted to see Glacier Bay. There were boat tours possible, without having to be on a cruise ship. Unfortunately, just after we left the "Columbia" at Haines, she suffered a major electrical fire and had to be towed back to Juneau for a major refit. The State Ferry System reacted quickly and we were able to rebook our return trip on a smaller ship. That is another story, but it all worked out fine for us. The people on the Columbia had quite a scare, being forced to leave the smoking ship without their luggage, in the middle of the Inside Passage.

Anyway, our schedule was in tatters, so we could not get to Glacier Bay by water. Instead, our "consolation" was to take a flightseeing tour from the Haines airport. All was handled smoothly, and we had a very good flying day. Glacier Bay is itself quite awesome, as the photographs show. Those huge cruise ships seem like little bathtub toys, when viewed against the face of the glaciers. The mountains west of Haines are covered in a heavy snowpack with many glaciers below, and we got fascinating views of them from the airplane.

All of the photos of Glacier Bay shown here were taken through the window of the airplane, so there is lots of distortion and strange colors. The map image provided is from an 1898 map, so location names may have changed.

The "thumbnails" following this narrative show the views of our Glacier Bay flightseeing. They may be "enlarged" by clicking on them with your mouse pointer. Enjoy!

The Swanson's at the Haines Airport	Awesome Mountains with Snowpack and Glaciers	Glaciers and Mountains	More Glaciers and Mountains	Water Pools on Surface of Glacier are a Deep, Deep Blue
Enormous Glacier [dark stripes are the moraine on the surface]	Glacier Meeting the Water [huge dark area at end is the moraine]	Another Glacier Meeting the Water [large stripe in middle is moraine]	Same Glacier Farther Away [the "calves" can be seen floating in the water]	The Cruise Ship is Dwarfed by the Glacier [note the mini-icebergs (calves) in the water near the ship]
Still Looks Like a Toy Boat	Better View of Ship and Glacier "Calves"	Glacier Bay is at the Top of the Map ["Chilkat" on the map is modern Haines]

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