The face of Childs Glacier forms a bank on the Copper River near Cordova, Alaska. This is the same Copper River famed for its runs of wild salmon.
Two days prior, we’d launched our C-Dory in Valdez and made the 90-mile run across a section of Prince William Sound to Cordova – a fishing village accessible only by air or water. The livelihood of many of Cordova’s 2,000 or so inhabitants is connected to the massive runs of salmon that ascend the nearby Copper River. A running event, the Alaska Salmon Runs Marathon and Half-Marathon road races, had lured us to this idyllic village. We hadn’t even known about Childs Glacier when we first put together our travel plans.
Just 400 yards across the river is a picnic area offering excellent views of the glacier.
As often happens at running events, it wasn’t long after we’d finished the half-marathon that we fell into conversation with another couple. They were planning on renting a car and driving out to see the glacier the following day. When they asked if we’d be interested in splitting the rental car and joining them, we didn’t hesitate. This would be our first opportunity to get close to a glacier.
We figured we’d drive out, snap a few photos, have lunch at the picnic area, and drive back. If we were lucky, we might see a moose or a bear along the way. This was before we understood the dynamic nature of sea-level glaciers. We were completely unprepared for what we would experience.
A shower of ice sloughs off the glacier’s face.
The width of the chalky-brown Copper River was all that separated the picnic area from this very active mass of slowly moving ice. Think of the cracking and popping sounds a couple of fresh ice cubes make in a glass of whisky. Now imagine those sounds magnified to amplitudes ranging from rifle fire to dynamite charges as ice almost continuously breaks away from the glacier’s face. We were mesmerized. The half-hour we’d planned on staying turned into an hour, then into two, and then into three.
We were witnessing yet another Alaskan phenomenon so large and full of energy that it is all but impossible to adequately capture on film or with words – an event you have to experience to comprehend, and we were here, experiencing it. Although neither Barbra nor I gave voice to the thought, it was probably on this day, watching and listening to this glacier, that the idea of moving up here began to root itself in us.
We sensed that something BIG was about to happen.
Suddenly, a massive section of ice below a seam we had been watching seemed to sag. A fraction of a second later a prolonged groaning, cracking explosion unlike any we’d heard before reached our ears as the face of the glacier fell away, collapsing into the water with a force that sent a small tidal wave curling toward us. The four of us looked at each other, eyes wide, jaws dropped, and quickly gathered our gear and scurried for higher ground. Seconds later, the wave hit the shore, inundating the area where we’d been standing only moments earlier. It was thrilling.
This large iceberg in Prince William Sound is the result of a glacier calving event in one of the sound’s fjords. Kittiwakes and gulls have claimed it as a roosting place.
CutterLight 
WOW!!! you most certainly live in the most beautiful place on earth!!! Just amazing!!
Awesome images and article!
Thanks Stan!
Simply breathtaking!
very surreal sitting here on my boat in Greece, 24 degrees, and reading your stuff, such a different world. But thanks to blogs, i get to experience a little bit of your world and I am enjoying it. cheers
Greece is sooo on our list of places we want to take our boat to! Thanks for reading!
We visited Cordova a couple of years ago in the summer. We drove out to Childs Glacier three times while there and each time we were just amazed and excited to see so much ice falling into the river! The pops and explosions and the waves of water as it sped across the river toward the other shore were nothing short of amazing! Your photos brought back some great memories. I’d love to go back again and camp there at the glacier so that I can hear the explosion of sound all night long!
Wow, amazing. I’m in sunny Australia and the closet thing to that are the David Attenborough DVDs, A frozen Planet. I ‘d love to live where you do…
And in a few years, we’re hoping to sail to Australia!
You will love it, it’s an amazing place as far as wildlife and national parks go. The cites can be polluted though; I’m sensitive to chemicals, if I stay in the bush or near the ocean, it goes away. I imagine the air is so clean where you are?
We hardly ever have to dust. Really clean air.
Really lovely shots. The various versions of blue in spots like this always stun me.
Yes, we used to assume photos like this were “doctored.” They’re not.
Beautiful pictures! A Wow place as wonderful as can be seen in some of the issues of National Geographic Mag. Safe travels and adventures. Be well.
Thank you. Are you two ready to come back to Alaska?
Wonderful photos Barbra! I feel a certain sense of tranquility just by looking at them. You are very lucky to be in such a beautiful place. How does it feel running in cold weathers? Sorry as I live in a very hot country! 🙂
Hi Mark, Thanks for reading! As long as it’s not too cold, the running is really nice. Hiking, too!
One of my favorite places on the planet, especially when its calving big time. So sad that you can’t drive out here anymore, really diminishes my biennial Cordova trips. Glad to have seen it many times though.
We weren’t aware you can’t drive out there these days. Too bad. As you say, it’s awe-inspiring sight. There’s still the village of Cordova though – one of our favorite towns of any size anywhere.
What a pity it’s no longer possible to drive out there, if it had been then I would have been adding this to our travel list, and up high on it too!!! Amazing photographs and description though, isn’t Mother Nature simply beyond amazing!?
That was the first time we’d ever seen (and heard) a glacier calve. We were mesmerized for hours! Thanks for dropping a line.
Camped out just upstream from here this past 4th of July while rafting down from Chitna. If you haven’t been up here recently, the river has changed the surrounding landscape significantly. Hearing the glacier crack like gunshots while settled in my tent overnight was unforgettable.
Thanks for the note, Steven. It was the sound that startled us, too – something no photograph and really no film even can capture.
I failed to mention-your photographs are amazing.
Thanks!
Do u know how child’s glacier got its name?
No, we don’t.