The terminus of a glacier takes so many forms. This one reaches out, scraping the land as it slowly retreats. Herbert Glacier was named in 1890 by Lieutenant Commander H. B. Mansfield. It is easily one of my favorite glaciers in the Juneau, Alaska region. The unique terminus looks like talons that are sculpting the land.
While not as popular as the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, I actually like Herbert even more. It’s about a 4.5 mile trek from the trailhead to the first viewpoint. Thankfully, 4 miles of that is totally doable on a bike. I did find that doing so in the winter means a rather bumpy ride as the trail is covered in ice and snow. Notwithstanding, it still beat walking the whole thing.
I hiked over 12 miles on December 20th (one of the shortest days of the year) to get this image. My goal was to explore an ice cave, but that effort was thwarted by too much ice. The trail is quite sketchy in places and it’s not worth death to see some blue ice.
As I made my way back toward the maintained trail I saw this amazing sunset. Can’t miss an opportunity even if it means hiking back in the dark. As a result of my failed ice cave adventure, I ended up with this beauty of a picture of the Herbert Glacier. Talons of ice.
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My name is Peter Nestler and I am a self-taught fine art photographer. I’ve traveled around the world with a jump rope and a camera with the goal of showcasing the beauty this planet has to offer. I specialize in large format, museum quality fine art images. I have also broken 12 Guinness World Records in my spare time.