John Muir lived from 1838-1914.  As a Naturalist, he made four trips to Alaska where he was the first Euro-American to explore Glacier Bay and document what he found there.  On those trips, he had a young missionary by the name of Samuel Hall Young as a companion.  Young wrote the book Alaska Days with John Muir which retells the adventures of John and Samuel’s excursions in the Last Frontier.  Today, you will pay a high fee to walk on a glacier…but John Muir did it every time he went to Alaska, maybe even every day.  In the book mentioned above, Young recalls a time when they spent the night on a glacier because there was nowhere to make a camp on shore.  Keep in mind, these men explored Glacier Bay in a canoe!  Both Young and Muir were Christians and Muir was often heard giving the majestic mountains and glaciers in Alaska the title, “The mountains of God.”  One time, after Muir left camp before the sun came up and didn’t return until the sun went down, this is what he said about the glaciers he walked on…

“I’ve been wandering through a thousand rooms of God’s crystal temple.  I’ve been a thousand feet down in crevasses, with matchless domes and sculptured figures and carved ice-work all about me.  Solomon’s marble and ivory palaces were nothing to it.” – John Muir (from Alaska Days with John Muir, Kindle edition, location 762, Public Domain Book.)

As Tuesday morning dawned and the ms Westerdam turned into Glacier Bay to cruise Tracy Arm Fjord, I had no idea how much those stories from Alaska Days with John Muir would enter my mind throughout the day.  The comparison of paddling a canoe down that winding pool of glacier water with gazing at one from the deck of a luxurious cruise ship, to the $500+ excursions that let you walk on a glacier with the fact that those men slept on one put in perspective how special this trip really was…  Not everyone in the 1800’s had the privilege to experience such things, and when you add the modern conveniences, entertainment and food to that, well, you really do have the vacation of a lifetime!  Those mountains of ice are truly a handcrafted work of God.

The scenic part of the day began at 8 AM.  From the sea our ship entered a narrow, squiggly path of water.  On each side, mountains towered above us.  As far as the eye could see in every direction the only thing to be seen was mountains.  They felt so close, it seemed you should have been able to reach out and touch them.  Parts of the mountains were covered in evergreens, others in shrubs, and then some were pure rock, steel grey and snowcapped.  But it was summer and the snow was melting, causing waterfalls to cascade down the rock face.  These waterfalls were everywhere!  Any place on the mountain side they found to stream down, they did.  In constant flow the water came – these falls were in every direction you looked, never ending.  It felt like a scene from the Chronicles of Narnia; something that was so beautiful, it couldn’t possibly be real or exist outside of a movie theater with special animation.  Yet, there it was.  Cruising through those mountains you felt as if you’d been transported to another world.

The purpose of cruising through all those mountains was to reach a “dead end” called Sawyer Glacier.  I heard it said, that our captain steered our ship closer to that glacier than this cruise (The In Touch Cruise) had been in years!  As we approached the glacier, Dr. Charles Stanley came on the PA system and read Genesis chapter one for the whole ship to hear.  It had been drizzling rain all morning, so when Dr. Stanley prayed, he asked the Lord to stop the rain.  Then everyone on the ship sang How Great Thou Art.  If I wouldn’t have been there to witness it, I may not have believed it, but when the last note was sung the rain stopped and the sun came out.  But more than that, a piece of the glacier calved right before our eyes as if on cue as the last note ended!  (Calving is when a piece of the glacier breaks off and falls into the water with a great crack.)  It was truly an amazing experience.  From that time on, the sun stayed out and the clouds disappeared, giving us an even better view of the passage as our ship turned and sailed out of Tracy Arm.

The Blue Badge autograph session with Dr. Stanley was at two o’clock that day.  I believe that it is safe to say that every single person with a Blue Badge was in line!  Our stateroom was at the front of the ship and when we rode the elevator down to the correct deck, the line was right there!  We stood for almost two hours and meandered through a line that spanned the length of the ship.  Though the time allotted for autographs was 2:00-3:30, the period it took for everyone to get through was much longer.  Though a few people in front of us were afraid that at some point the line would be cut, it never was.  Dr. Stanley talked, took photos and signed books for every person…and he wasn’t in a hurry!

Because the book signing went longer than expected, we missed the Blue Badge concert in the Vista Lounge.  (It was scheduled from 3:30-5:00 PM.)  By the time we were through the line with Dr. Stanley it was time to change clothes and head to the dining room.  I’m pretty sure we missed lunch that day and we were hungry!  To any and all who might consider cruising with Holland America, I highly recommend the Snickers Cake.  Delicious, heavenly and purely delightful can’t begin to explain how good it was!

And because I’m pretty sure there are no words to describe the scenery we cruised through that afternoon, I want you to see it for yourself in these photos…

Hope you enjoy them!

Have you read all my posts about the Alaska Cruise?  You can by clicking the links below…

Where we departed from – A Day in Seattle

Saturday – Alaska Bound

Sunday – The Tale of the Whale

Monday – Bears, Glaciers and Waterfalls