Tracy Arm, Southeast Alaska
It was quiet and cozy on the Sea Lion as we traveled from Auke Bay, just north of Juneau, south through Stephen’s Passage. Broken clouds and patches of blue sky overcame a very fine, light mist. The ship slowed down, a now familiar signal that we should head to the decks for wildlife. This time a humpback whale surfaced then fluked. We waited, and it rose and fluked again and again. Snow blanketed the distant peaks with soft shades of gray, lavender and white. What a wonderful experience to observe this magnificent creature in such a wild and lovely setting!
The ship motored on, and five more whales appeared near the horizon. Their spouts lingered in the distance before gradually dissipating. As we drew nearer, several humpbacks remained lazily together at the surface, and then one by one arched and lifted their flukes to again descend to the depths.
Following lunch, we entered Tracy Arm, a spectacular glacially carved fjord. We had seen small fragments of floating ice earlier, but now they were everywhere. Ice swans and dragons bobbed in our wake, while live birds paddled just ahead. Hundreds of surf scoters drifted in immense rafts, then took off en masse with a fabulous whistling created by their flapping wings. A black bear wandered along a vegetated slope then paused in one spot, casually nibbling on emerging plants.
Zodiac tours launched from the fantail to explore the fascinating world of floating ice and steep rock walls while the Sea Lion maneuvered on, carefully picking a path through the small growlers, mid-sized bergie bits, and larger icebergs. Textbook examples of U-shaped and hanging valleys, glacial striations, domes and horns, and other features of glacial landscapes surrounded us.
When everyone was back aboard, the ship turned to retrace our route along the sinuous path once taken by the glacier itself. The late afternoon light bathed the high ridges and left us in the shadows far below. We made our way back towards Stephen’s Passage, absorbing the immensity of the wilderness scenery from another angle. The water was still choked with floating ice when the Captain’s Farewell Cocktail Party got into full swing. The setting here in Tracy Fjord could not have been prettier for our last evening together on our coastal adventures in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
It was quiet and cozy on the Sea Lion as we traveled from Auke Bay, just north of Juneau, south through Stephen’s Passage. Broken clouds and patches of blue sky overcame a very fine, light mist. The ship slowed down, a now familiar signal that we should head to the decks for wildlife. This time a humpback whale surfaced then fluked. We waited, and it rose and fluked again and again. Snow blanketed the distant peaks with soft shades of gray, lavender and white. What a wonderful experience to observe this magnificent creature in such a wild and lovely setting!
The ship motored on, and five more whales appeared near the horizon. Their spouts lingered in the distance before gradually dissipating. As we drew nearer, several humpbacks remained lazily together at the surface, and then one by one arched and lifted their flukes to again descend to the depths.
Following lunch, we entered Tracy Arm, a spectacular glacially carved fjord. We had seen small fragments of floating ice earlier, but now they were everywhere. Ice swans and dragons bobbed in our wake, while live birds paddled just ahead. Hundreds of surf scoters drifted in immense rafts, then took off en masse with a fabulous whistling created by their flapping wings. A black bear wandered along a vegetated slope then paused in one spot, casually nibbling on emerging plants.
Zodiac tours launched from the fantail to explore the fascinating world of floating ice and steep rock walls while the Sea Lion maneuvered on, carefully picking a path through the small growlers, mid-sized bergie bits, and larger icebergs. Textbook examples of U-shaped and hanging valleys, glacial striations, domes and horns, and other features of glacial landscapes surrounded us.
When everyone was back aboard, the ship turned to retrace our route along the sinuous path once taken by the glacier itself. The late afternoon light bathed the high ridges and left us in the shadows far below. We made our way back towards Stephen’s Passage, absorbing the immensity of the wilderness scenery from another angle. The water was still choked with floating ice when the Captain’s Farewell Cocktail Party got into full swing. The setting here in Tracy Fjord could not have been prettier for our last evening together on our coastal adventures in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
