ALASKA: The final view… LeConte Glacier

The official tour ended with our wedding, but Lisa and I stayed on to honeymoon for a few days in Petersburg, over the July 4th weekend. We had an amazing time in town and hiking around the many habitats on Mitkof Island. On our last day, we went flight seeing in a float plane to view LeConte Glacier from above… the place where we were married!

As expected, the view was nothing less than spectacular! From the ship the glacier appears to have a flat face. From the plane it proved otherwise!

LeConte Glacier is the fastest moving ice on Earth… it travels up to 90 feet per day! It calves frequently (as seen in my previous post) and thunders when it does so! The ice field flows from 22 miles back through the mountains, and the ice reaches a depth in the bay of over 500 feet!

Crystal blue melt water fills a few of the crevasses. These fissures are much deeper than they seem!

After exploring the glacier, we swung over the north arm of the Stikine River. Rich in wildlife, the Stikine Delta stretches from the island of Wrangell to LeConte Bay. The tidal flats offer a great stopover for migrating shorebirds and Sandhill Cranes.

We had a great view of Petersburg before landing in the Wrangell Narrows.

We were dropped at the floatplane dock and Cole departed… and the next day the honeymoon was over (at least the Alaska portion!) and Lisa and I departed Petersburg to begin our new life together!