Sunday, September 11, 2016

2016 Aug Alaska 14

We woke up to these eagles eating on a salmon in front of our motor home.

Early morning departure for our Adventure Caravan group.  Taking a day trip from Valdez to Mears Glacier.



We saw this tanker filling up on our boat trip out of Valdez.  There use to be 30 to 40 tankers a month filling up here just a few years ago.  With the oil surplus and low prices, only about half that amount of tankers are loading here in Valdez.
Another closer view of the oil storage tanks. 


We were able to stand in the pilot room and chat with the pilot.  Very neat.  He gave us a good ride spotting whales, seals, otters, and eagles below.





Hard to see how tall this glacier is as it meets the water, but it's about 10 stories high.
Seals enjoying the icebergs.



This time of year, only the males stay behind, letting the females and new pups head south before the males do.  As our pilot said, these guys are just hanging out and reminiscing about the good times they had this past summer.  I wonder what he met by that exactly?


Only 10% of an iceberg shows above the water.  Our boat got a little too close to this one below for my comfort.








This was very interesting.  The smaller trunk is just as old as the larger one due to growing above permafrost. 

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