Glacier calving pictures and videos show images of Earth’s changing surface. Alaska small cruise ship vacations are excellent ways to experience the Inside Passage, and glacier tours are even more interesting with glacier calving that can be captured in pictures and video. Glacier tours are part of most Alaska Inside Passage cruises, and so we found ourselves cruising up Endicott Arm Fjord to get an up-close look at Dawes Glacier as part of our Alaska cruise vacation. Travel to Alaska often includes weather concerns; true to form, we’d been wearing t-shirts and sandals the day prior, and the day Fantasy Cruises’ Island Spirit small ship cruised to Dawes Glacier, it was raining. That didn’t dampen our spirits (sorry ’bout that), as the crew served hot chocolate while us tourists clustered at the bow of the ship. We had quiet fun watching the glacier calving. Take a look at this video.
Can you believe we were completely enthralled for over half an hour before the glacier calving finally occurred? Richard, the naturalist 
on the small cruise ship Island Spirit, really knows his glaciers. In retrospect it seems perhaps bewildering that we Alaska tourists were so excited with Dawes Glacier calving an iceberg around the size of half a city block — after all, it’s not fireworks — but it also makes sense. Glaciers advancing and receding are part of a natural geologic process that takes millennia and literally changes the face of the Earth. Canyons are carved, boulders are deposited a thousand miles from their starting points, trapped animals become fossils. It’s incredible to think about. Half an hour isn’t really that long at all a wait, after all, to get to witness a small part of the continual process of our Earth’s changing surface. Not long at all.
Thank you to Fantasy Cruises for hosting this southeast Alaska cruise travel vacation.
It seems like an amazing adventure. I hope you really enjoyed it.
How cool! I went on a cruise through Alaska’s Inside Passage (on Regent Seven Seas) but didn’t get to go on a glacier calving tour (or maybe there was one and I didn’t know about it). That sounds so cool. Passing by Hubbard Glacier is one of my favorite travel memories–it’s phenomenal.
When I cruised last year on Regent Seven Seas from Vancouver to Singapore, our ship spent the morning at Hubbard Glacier. We watched the glacier calving as the ship spun around in a 360 circle several times for all to see. Awesome!
Wow! Looks like you guys were in the right place at the right time again. Seals and a bit of the glacier breaking off as you were approaching.
While I completely understand, I do find it slightly ironic that everyone was applauding a glacier breaking up.
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