Tracy Arm
How can this trip get any better? That is the question being asked of all of the guests aboard the Sea Lion. Today is the first full day for these guests and they were awakened in front of the beautiful Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm, forty-five miles south of Juneau. Breakfast not only brought great food, but also several beautiful calvings from the front of Dawes Glacier.
As we traveled back up Endicott Arm we picked up Jon and Benjamin, two Wilderness Rangers from the Forest Service who were kayaking in the Tracy Arm Ford’s Terror Wilderness Area. They spent the morning talking to the guests and explaining some of their responsibilities with the Forest Service. The Tongass is the largest National Forest in the United States, 17 million acres. Endicott Arm proved to be a smorgasbord of wildlife: mountain goats were seen near the beautiful mountain peaks, harbor seal moms and pups were seen on the icebergs, a stunning male killer whale with his majestic dorsal fin was peacefully cruising, a brown bear grazed on the grasses near the beach, and humpback whales showed us how they got their name as well as the splendorous display of their flukes.
After lunch we anchored in Williams Cove, lowered the Zodiacs and took guests ashore for an afternoon of hikes and kayaking. The hikers encountered beautiful flowers such as chocolate lilies, dwarf dogwood, white bog orchids, and western buttercups. They also encountered numerous bear scat deposits, amongst the primary growth forest of western hemlock and sitka spruce. The kayaks paddled to beautiful waterfalls, while soaking up the distant serenity of the snow capped mountain peaks.
