The two RV Gypsies and family went on a 9-hour tour of Prince William Sound and Meares Glacier.

After walking down the covered stairs towards the boat, Karen Duquette turned around and took a photo.

The flag on the boat needs to be replaced
Karen Duquette reported it to the captain.

The two RV Gypsies took this tour so their family could discover all of what Prince William Sound has to offer – amazing glaciers, exciting wildlife and a rich history. The two RV Gypsies boarded this cruise for the third time, and once again, enjoyed the majestic waters of Prince William Sound from Valdez to Meares Glacier. In route, the Captain traveled the shorelines looking for the critters that call the Sound home. On this day, the two RV Gypsies and their family only saw sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, and one bald eagle. In 2009, the two RV Gypsies saw Humpback Whales.

A lunch and an afternoon soup snack was served on board. This tour does not operate daily. Please check the official website for Stan Stephens tours for more information and reservations. This site is just to enjoy the trip the two RV Gypsies took in 2016. Do Not contact the two RV Gypsies for reservations.

BELOW: Boats in the harbor inlet

Below: Beautiful mountains covered with cliffs, waterfalls, and patches of snow.

Below: Several waterfalls cascading down the mountain

Below: Beautiful scenery in the Harbor Inlet

Below: A rock formation that looks like a side profile of a face.

Below: Ice chunks from the glacier started to appear in the water and form natural floating ice sculptures.

Below are natural floating ice sculptures
- bergie bits (small iceberg fragments),
- growlers (a small iceberg - just big enough to be hazardous),
- and icebergs (a very large mass of ice broken off a glacier)
(only a small portion of the ice chunks appear above water)

Glacier ice has a slightly reduced density from ice formed from the direct freezing of water. The air between snowflakes becomes trapped and creates air bubbles between the ice crystals. The distinctive blue tint of glacial ice is often wrongly attributed to Rayleigh scattering due to bubbles in the ice. The blue color is actually created for the same reason that water is blue, that is, its slight absorption of red light due to an overtone of the infrared OH stretching mode of the water molecule.

The Meares Glacier is a large tidewater glacier at the head of Unakwik Inlet in Chugach National Forest, Alaska. The glacier is one of the many in Prince William Sound, and is about 79.6 miles east of Anchorage. The glacier is named for eighteenth century British naval captain John Meares. The face of the glacier shown below is one mile wide where it calves into the inlet.

Below: The two RV Gypsies in front of Meares Glacier. Meares Glacier is about one-mile wide and is an advancing glacier. The face of the glacier is about 200 feet high. The boat could not get as close to Meares Glacier as it did in 2009.

Below: As chunks of ice cave off of the glacier, it forms an ice field that is hard for boats to maneuver through.

Please continue on to page 2 - wildlife seen on the cruise