Tracy Arm, Fords Terror Wilderness & Auke Bay
Early morning cumulus clouds drifting high above the granitic fiord walls soon dissipated and a stunning blue sky-blue ice morning emerged. The Sawyer glaciers have been receding since the end of the little ice age two hundred and fifty years ago while very recent activity at the glacier face has left behind especially large, translucent blue ice sculptures floating near the head of the fiord.
Moving in Zodiacs through the ever changing and rather surreal scene of such immense beauty left us joyful and amazed. The haunting beauty of unnamed thousand foot waterfalls and impossibly beautiful art glass ice is a wonderful conclusion to our glorious week of exploration. Cruising near the Sawyer Glaciers at the head of Tracy Arm fiord is enjoying Southeast Alaska celebrating itself.
This afternoon we cruised north taking care of shipboard details: packing, conversing, exchanging pictures, ideas and addresses. And who would have missed our young guests in the “Alaska’s Got Talent” show?
Shortly after we sat down for farewell dinner, one of the sights that travelers to Southeast Alaska dream of witnessing burst out of the water just off the starboard side. We had hoped to find a group of humpback whales cooperative or ‘bubblenet’ feeding, and with luck and persistence, we were successful.
There were a dozen eighty-ton animals working together to concentrate their prey of small schooling fish. Every five or six minutes, the circling gulls would dive toward the area the whales were working and the enormous shapes of open whale mouths would surface.
Our collection of memories and the stories of our travels in this majestic northern place are treasures to savor and to share with friends and family for a long time to come.
