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| Mile 0 of the Iditarod Trail...……...just 2,300 miles to Nome. Even as much as we enjoy walking we opted out of hiking it! |
As impressive as the Margerie Glacier was it was no match for the Hubbard Glacier. As best as we can remember (which isn't real good anymore) it was our first time seeing the Hubbard Glacier. Last year we were supposed to visit the Hubbard Glacier but it was in the spring and there was still too much ice in the water to get close enough to view it. The wait was worth it and this year we had conditions that allowed the captain to get the ship to within a mile or so of the face of the glacier.
By comparison, the Margerie Glacier was around a mile wide and 250 feet tall. The Hubbard Glacier is over 6 miles wide, 450 feet tall and extends back into the Alaska wilderness for over 60 miles!
It was quite a site.
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| Hubbard Glacier |
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| Hubbard Glacier Panoramic |
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| One of the many large icebergs near the Glacier. This one looked to be around 50 feet in length with 15-20 sticking out of the water. |
We've now said "see you in a couple of weeks" to the Norwegian Jewel and started our two weeks on land. We got off the ship around 9:00 AM yesterday (Monday). We spent the day in the small port city of Seward where we visited the Alaska Sea Life Center as well as the public library/museum which offered "2 Movies @ 2:00". They were both documentaries. The first was on the Iditarod Trail, which actually begins in Seward and runs over 2,300 miles to Nome (the sled dog race is 1,049 miles and starts in Anchorage). The second was on the "Good Friday Earthquake of 1964". They were both interesting but it was really interesting to learn about the earthquake which registered 9.2 on the Richter Scale. The earthquake and tsunami that it caused completely destroyed the town and twelve lives were lost. However, if you are going to live in Alaska you're going to be tough and the hearty people went right back to work rebuilding the town. They had completely restored water and electricity within four months. Today Seward is a thriving port city with a population of nearly 3,000 permanent residents, and is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists and travelers every year.
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| Puffin-Alaska Sea Life Center |
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Sea Lion-Alaska Sea Life Center
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