Tracy Arm And Williams Cove
A wonderful first day in Southeast Alaska! This morning the M.V. Sea Lion took us to a majestic place. A 21 mile long Fiord that is well known and famous for its striking beauty. Two thousand foot walls, over one hundred water falls and deep water courses create this unique landscape. Over the eons, the relentless movement of two glaciers, the Sawyer and South Sawyer, have scraped this fiord out of the rock. These glaciers have been receding during the last two decades or more.
Before breakfast, we were all on the bow, enjoying the "postcard" view of the Sawyer glacier. Then, as we were making our way towards the face of the glacier, a few mountain goats were spotted; a nanny goat with a kid were wandering around the steep cliffs and slopes of the rock face. We were surprised by the presence of different species of sea birds; one of the most abundant in this body of water, and most intriguing of all, is the arctic tern. These adventurous creatures make the longest migration among all animals, flying from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back, every year, covering at least 22,000 miles!! The ones we see here are cheating a bit, since they did not make it all the way to the Arctic to nest; instead they stopped at Tracy Arm to have their chicks. Herring and Mew gulls were feeding on little sea organisms close to the base of the glacier. Patience was finally rewarded by "White Thunder", the native term for the sound that the glacier makes when it cracks or calves. By then half of the guests had gone down to the dinning room for breakfast, but some of us witnessed this impressive phenomenon.
After our morning meal, we headed to South Sawyer Glacier in the company of two field workers of the Tongass National Forest, the largest National Forest in the United States, covering 16.7 million acres. As we were making our way through the icebergs and ice flows towards the face of this "River of Ice", hundreds of harbor seals were lying on the bergy bits. According to the latest census done by our visiting biologists, the numbers are up to 850 adult female harbor seals and 350 pups in this inlet alone. This is the time of the year when they give birth to a cute single, haired pup! This fiord is a perfectly protected area for them, away from one of their main predators: the killer whales or orcas. The vicinity of the ship surprised a couple of them, and as soon as they were aware of our presence they slid down, disappearing into the milky glacier water. This was our lucky day…we even had more calving activity here.
After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon at "Williams Cove", an inlet found on the mainland of Southeast Alaska. It is the perfect place to go kayaking and hiking to discover and explore the temperate rain forest, both from land and from water level. We all came back to the ship after enjoying ourselves in this pristine wilderness.
A wonderful first day in Southeast Alaska! This morning the M.V. Sea Lion took us to a majestic place. A 21 mile long Fiord that is well known and famous for its striking beauty. Two thousand foot walls, over one hundred water falls and deep water courses create this unique landscape. Over the eons, the relentless movement of two glaciers, the Sawyer and South Sawyer, have scraped this fiord out of the rock. These glaciers have been receding during the last two decades or more.
Before breakfast, we were all on the bow, enjoying the "postcard" view of the Sawyer glacier. Then, as we were making our way towards the face of the glacier, a few mountain goats were spotted; a nanny goat with a kid were wandering around the steep cliffs and slopes of the rock face. We were surprised by the presence of different species of sea birds; one of the most abundant in this body of water, and most intriguing of all, is the arctic tern. These adventurous creatures make the longest migration among all animals, flying from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back, every year, covering at least 22,000 miles!! The ones we see here are cheating a bit, since they did not make it all the way to the Arctic to nest; instead they stopped at Tracy Arm to have their chicks. Herring and Mew gulls were feeding on little sea organisms close to the base of the glacier. Patience was finally rewarded by "White Thunder", the native term for the sound that the glacier makes when it cracks or calves. By then half of the guests had gone down to the dinning room for breakfast, but some of us witnessed this impressive phenomenon.
After our morning meal, we headed to South Sawyer Glacier in the company of two field workers of the Tongass National Forest, the largest National Forest in the United States, covering 16.7 million acres. As we were making our way through the icebergs and ice flows towards the face of this "River of Ice", hundreds of harbor seals were lying on the bergy bits. According to the latest census done by our visiting biologists, the numbers are up to 850 adult female harbor seals and 350 pups in this inlet alone. This is the time of the year when they give birth to a cute single, haired pup! This fiord is a perfectly protected area for them, away from one of their main predators: the killer whales or orcas. The vicinity of the ship surprised a couple of them, and as soon as they were aware of our presence they slid down, disappearing into the milky glacier water. This was our lucky day…we even had more calving activity here.
After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon at "Williams Cove", an inlet found on the mainland of Southeast Alaska. It is the perfect place to go kayaking and hiking to discover and explore the temperate rain forest, both from land and from water level. We all came back to the ship after enjoying ourselves in this pristine wilderness.
