There's a glacier for everyone in Alaska

Margerie Glacier often puts on a show as huge chunks break off

With apologies to Texas, when it comes to states with the biggest and the most, Alaska stands above all.

Even though we got the land for a little more than 2 cents an acre, Alaska cost the U.S. $7.2 million in 1867 because it covers more than 375 million acres.

It has the most bald eagles, brown bears, black bears totems and volcanoes of any state.

So it should come as no surprise that when it comes to glaciers, Alaska tops that list as well.

On our recent trips over the past few years to the land they call “The Last Frontier,” we have viewed:

—    Sawyer Glacier in the Tracy Arm Fiord from the deck of the  Norwegian  Cruise ship, Jewel

Shakes icebergs are a photographer's delight 

—    LeConte Glacier from the friendly confines of an Alaska Charters and Adventures’ jet boat – www.alaskaupclose.com/

—   Shakes Glacier off the Stikine River from good friend Earl Benitz’s boat

—   Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay from the deck of the Norwegian cruise ship, Pearl,

Margerie put on a show with chunks of ice calving (breaking off) much to the delight of the camera-toting tourists.

The Sawyer Glacier wasn’t as active. In fact, only a few of us at the stern got to see it shed some of its ice as the Jewel was making a tight turn before heading to its next port-of-call.

While those two glaciers calve chunks of ice, the water in front of them is relatively free of icebergs — at least what one can see above the surface.

It’s quite another story at LeConte, the southernmost tidewater glacier in the United States and Shakes off the Stikine River.

Icebergs calved from Le Conte fill up the bay

LeConte empties into a bay of the same name between the island towns of Wrangell and Petersburg.

The bay is most often filled with icebergs calved by the glacier.

It’s much the same story for Shakes except that over time sediment has built up to the poiint that the icebergs spawned by Shakes can’t make it out of Shakes Lake and into the Stikine.

Sawyer Glacier is impressive up close

It took several years before I was able to get past the bockade of trapped icebergs and motor the two miles through the lake to glacier’s face.

Apparently the difference is that ice that breaks off Margerie and other glaciers in Glacier Bay comes from the face. At LeConte, the giant chunks that break off to become icebergs separate below the waterline and bob to the surface.

How high a berg floats depends upon its size, the ice's density, and the water's density. Bergs may be weighed down or even submerged by rock and rubble. A modest-looking berg may suddenly loom enormous – and endanger small craft – when it rolls over. Boaters and especially kayakers should keep in mind that what one sees is “just the tip of the iceberg.”

One thing that glacier experts can agree on is why the ice is blue. The density of the ice produces the color. The denser the ice, the bluer it will appear.

Rangers who boarded the Pearl to help visitors enjoy Glacier Bay passed along a tip for photographers. More often than not, the snapping off a huge chunk of ice is preceded by a loud crack or pop. Picture taking is a lot easier when the photographer has inkling that something is about to happen.

Hundreds of thousand visit Glacier Bay each year, but the vast majority never set foot in the national park. Instead, they view the bay and surrounding glaciers from the comfort of a cruise ship, spending a few hours in the bay before heading off for another port of call in Alaska.

For more on Glacier Bay, visit www.nps.gov/glba. For information on the others, just plug the name into an Internet search and browse away.