Partage Glacier

I have always liked seeing arches. Must be from all the years being in So. Utah with the arched sandstone...

There's that glacier blue!!!

The dark lines are from different stages of formation. Probably from the top ice getting dirty and then the next winter snow and freeze comes along and embeds it in the glacier! (That's my story and I am sticking to it!)

After such an amazing Flightseeing trip we could not imagine anything better. But this IS Alaska! Every time we think we have seen it all we see something else. We had to backtrack in order to get to Valdez (Val-Deez) so this time we made sure we had enough time to see Portage Glacier. We have see lots of glaciers along the way but they are always so far away. On the tour boat we come within 300 yards of the face of the Glacier. That sounds like such a long way but because of the size of the Glacier it seems like you are right there! With all Glaciers I am always amazed at the blue color that comes through.

~~It is only when the light rays, red and yellow, can go further into the snow or ice, and are dispersed without being bounced back out, that the snow appears blue. The blue rays are the only ones left, because the reds and yellows tend to disperse more easily.~~

We were hoping to see some calving (when huge chunks of the glacier break away) but nothing broke off while we were there. We did however hear the cracking of the ice that the glacier makes as it moves slowly downward. According to the Ranger on our tour this particular Glacier is moving forward 18 inches a day and has approximately 100 feet of ice below the water line.