The water was a vivid blue with floating chunks of ice upon it. Seagulls cried as they circled above the huge glaciers. The sun peeked over the mountains and I could see the entire range capped with snow. The wind had a bite to it and I huddled deep inside my jacket. This was Alaska.
Great rivers of ice stretched over and between mountain ridges until they met the tidewater. There is nothing like hearing the sound of the glacier calving large chunks of ice with thunderous cracks into the sea. The Mendenhall Glacier is about 13.6 miles long and is not far from Juneau. The Margerie Glacier is bigger and is 21 miles long. There are other glaciers, but these are the popular ones.
A glacier forms when the snow pack doesn’t melt away, but is compressed by additional snow accumulation. Eventually, the compressed snow becomes ice. The force of gravity pulls the glacier downhill. As a glacier moves, it scrapes away soil and rock. This should be on your bucket list to see if you haven’t done so already.
clawingmywayin 