Williams Cove and Tracy Arm
Today we enjoyed the last day of our journey through Southeast Alaska. Overcast skies greeted us with beautiful lines of fog over the mountains, and no rain. This morning we explored a cove at the entrance of Tracy Arm, a few miles south of Juneau. Here we had a number of choices for activities.
On our walks we could explore, following the numerous bear trails that extend through the forests like a spiders’ webs. The majestic scenery of the forest, with the remnants of morning fog, seemed like a scene from a science fiction movie. One of our walks went uphill towards a muskeg, or peat bog. Here we saw some evidence of beaver activity, and could get a close look at the fascinating plants that grow here. Every plant that grows in the muskeg is a true survivor, and could very well be considered extremists. One of the clearest examples of this is the round-leaf sundew, a plant that has figured out that to compensate for the lack of nutrients of the soil, it can catch insects to supplement its diet.
Kayakers and Zodiac cruisers had close encounters with waterfalls and impressive icebergs. These large icebergs originated in Canada and calved down into the fjords at the face of Sawyer or South Sawyer glaciers. The electric blue color of this glacial ice is very striking, and most people found their photographic creativity enhanced by such beautiful subjects.
We got underway again into the impressive fjord of Tracy Arm. All the mountains that hug the fiord emerge towards the sky, making us feel small, and it is quite a humbling experience to admire the majesty of nature in the way we did today. All this landscape enjoys the highest level of protection that any land in the country can have. All this area is Wilderness with capital “W,” which means that places like this are here for humans to enjoy; a truly primitive experience away from it all.
At the end of the fjord we encountered South Sawyer Glacier, literally face to face. Here we deployed our Zodiacs to get a closer look. What a wonderful way to end our expedition through this wild land, Southeast Alaska!
