Tracy Arm Fjord
We have come to Southeast Alaska for a variety of reasons. Many of our reasons could be expressed in a visual context. We have come to see vistas, mammals, birds, plants, and glaciers. Today, we realized the delight of experiencing Alaska’s other sensory facets; we heard and touched Tracy Arm Fjord.
The sounds of groaning, crashing, rumbling and snapping ice jostling behind the face of South Sawyer glacier at times kept us in rapt silence. When the ice calved into the bay, we erupted with cheers and applause and pleaded with the glacier for an encore. Barn swallows, mew gulls and Arctic terns punctuated our viewing with a variety of avian murmurings.
Hole-in-the-Wall falls roared down the sides of the fjord and onto our decks as Captain Martin maneuvered the bow of the Sea Bird under the foaming cascade. It was an opportunity to feel the wet, chilling spray on our bare faces and un-mittened hands.
The afternoon brought the opportunity to walk amongst the scolding chatter of red squirrels, the chirping whistles of bald eagles and the slorp and squish of boot sucking mud.
Touching the leaves of the Sitka alder left us with the feeling of being handed a toy from a grape jelly-fingered child.
As we walked in the forest, our moss-muffled footsteps gave us an opportunity for silence and a cause for wonder. From soft knitted mosses and boldly inscribed lettuce leaves of lichens to delicately sculpted ferns, we marveled at the diversity offered not only in shades and hues but also of textures of the color green.
We closed our day with the soft murmuring purr of the Sea Bird’s engines as she navigated to our next day of discovery and explorations.
We have come to Southeast Alaska for a variety of reasons. Many of our reasons could be expressed in a visual context. We have come to see vistas, mammals, birds, plants, and glaciers. Today, we realized the delight of experiencing Alaska’s other sensory facets; we heard and touched Tracy Arm Fjord.
The sounds of groaning, crashing, rumbling and snapping ice jostling behind the face of South Sawyer glacier at times kept us in rapt silence. When the ice calved into the bay, we erupted with cheers and applause and pleaded with the glacier for an encore. Barn swallows, mew gulls and Arctic terns punctuated our viewing with a variety of avian murmurings.
Hole-in-the-Wall falls roared down the sides of the fjord and onto our decks as Captain Martin maneuvered the bow of the Sea Bird under the foaming cascade. It was an opportunity to feel the wet, chilling spray on our bare faces and un-mittened hands.
The afternoon brought the opportunity to walk amongst the scolding chatter of red squirrels, the chirping whistles of bald eagles and the slorp and squish of boot sucking mud.
Touching the leaves of the Sitka alder left us with the feeling of being handed a toy from a grape jelly-fingered child.
As we walked in the forest, our moss-muffled footsteps gave us an opportunity for silence and a cause for wonder. From soft knitted mosses and boldly inscribed lettuce leaves of lichens to delicately sculpted ferns, we marveled at the diversity offered not only in shades and hues but also of textures of the color green.
We closed our day with the soft murmuring purr of the Sea Bird’s engines as she navigated to our next day of discovery and explorations.
