Williams Cove/Tracy Arm, Southeast Alaska
Williams Cove is a thumb off Tracy Arm Fjord a short way inside the narrow channel entrance. It was here that we spent the morning hiking, kayaking and taking Zodiac tours around the bay. Some of the kayakers spotted a bear that had come out of the forest by a stream. Groups of scoters took to the air with an ethereal whistling sound from their wings. Spotted sandpipers and northwestern crows leap-frogged along the rocky shore. Lichens, mosses and fungi reveled in the moisture of the temperate rain forest that makes this area so lush. June blossoms have transformed into late summer fruits, many of which are food for the myriad creatures that dwell here. This forest contains more biomass than does a tropical rainforest.
The power of water shows itself in many ways. Rock fragments that were once angular are now rounded gravel beach deposits. More than 100 waterfalls cascade through narrow V-shaped valleys into Tracy Arm Fjord. Pieces of rock could be seen falling along with the high water flow in some of them. Pockets in the rock are created when the force of the falling water tumbles stones around. Surrounding us was evidence that glaciers had once been in the very places where we traveled, over land and sea, and created the magnificent landscape all around us. U-shaped valleys, striations, domed granitic rock, morainal debris, steep polished rock walls, and silty water are all testament to past events. The sun drives the hydrologic cycle that distributes fresh water around the planet, but not in an equitable manner. Water vapor in the atmosphere condenses, forms clouds and falls as rain, snow, sleet and hail. Snow that persists metamorphoses into ice. As the ice builds up it is pulled by the force of gravity and starts to move downhill. Ice in the center of the glacier is under great pressure and has had most of the air bubbles pressed out of it. This is the pure, dense ice that shows the deepest blue hues.
Water is Life. All living organisms are made of it and are dependent upon it. It has some unusual qualities and should command our respect, but we often take it for granted, pollute it, or ignore its strength.
At the head of the fjord our transit was finally blocked by the shear walls of the Sawyer Glaciers. Great rivers of ice flowing from inland ice fields reach the sea and begin their final disintegration as they calve into the waters at their base. Deep blue highly compressed ice topped by broken ice walls provided a stunning view as we patiently awaited the calving events that create the numerous icebergs floating at the base of the tidewater glacier. It was a spectacular reward when it finally happened! Hundreds of harbor seals had hauled out on the floating ice, seemingly unfazed by the ice tumbling into the water.
Reluctantly we retraced our route out of the twisting fjord as we traveled to our journey's end in Juneau.
