Hubbard Glacier cruise port guide
Nicknamed the "Galloping Glacier," this east Alaskan glacier is rapidly advancing toward the Gulf of Alaska into a pristine area known as Disenchantment Bay. In fact, its movement temporarily formed a natural dam that twice closed off nearby Russell Fjord from the bay, but the intense water pressure building within the fjord-turned-lake has thus far been enough to explode through the wall of ice. The largest tidewater glacier in North America, Hubbard Glacier measures 76 miles long and plunges 1,200 feet into the depths of the bay. Its immense beauty and phenomenal blue hues are enchanting, even from afar. But it's when your cruise ship draws closer that its towering surface really impresses, dwarfing even the uppermost deck on your ship at a whopping 40 stories high. There, with the snowcapped mountains serving as a glorious backdrop, you'll have a prime viewing spot from which to witness the glacier calving, as it often expels icebergs the size of 10-story buildings-imagine the splash! The area around Hubbard Glacier is also renowned for its wildlife, where whales, harbor seals and otters swim, brown bears, moose and black-tailed deer roam ashore, and a wide variety of seabirds soar gracefully across the sky.
About Hubbard Glacier
Hubbard Glacier (Lingít: Sít' Tlein) is a tidewater glacier within Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve in eastern Alaska, discharging into Disenchantment Bay. Cruise ships approach for scenic glacier viewing but must maintain standoff distance, as the glacier routinely calves icebergs the size of a ten-story building and newly calved bergs can shoot upward dramatically from below the waterline. The glacier has been advancing for roughly a century and has twice threatened to dam Russell Fjord from the bay.
The primary draw is the glacier face itself, a roughly 10-mile-wide tidewater terminus that has been advancing for approximately a century. The adjacent Russell Fjord has been dammed twice by the advancing ice, most notably in 1986 when the resulting glacial lake outburst released an estimated 5.3 cubic kilometers of water in 24 hours — the largest such flood on record. The Valerie Glacier merges with Hubbard from the west and contributes to its advance. Ice at the snout is approximately 400 years old, having traversed the full length of the glacier system.
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