Into Alaska - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 94

the Sound, resulting in thousands of small chunks of ice floating around the boat. Made me
feel like we were bobbing about in a giant punchbowl. Curious sea otters floated by.
They are a gregariously social mammal, linking themselves together into “rafts” that allow
them to just bob along on the surface socializing and grooming and feeding together.
Meares is the dramatic-looking glacier that is featured in so many of the photos you see
of Prince William Sound, a 3-400 foot high solid wall of blue ice that is continuously and
noily calving. The sounds emitted from this living beast were striking. First, the silence so
intense you realize you are holding your breath. Then a groaning mounts from the wall in
front of you as the massive glacier grinds forward. Gun-shot like reports crack over the wa-
ter and moments later the ice wall splinters, catapulting building-sized icebergs into the sea
below. Very cool.