Tracy Arm, Southeast Alaska, 7/4/2022, National Geographic Quest
Aboard the
National Geographic Quest
Alaska
Happy 4th of July from South Sawyer Glacier!
Today was truly a day of celebrations! We sailed out of Juneau and crossed the bar into Tracy Arm on the 4th of July. Groups boarded Zodiacs for our first adventure, and we could barely contain our excitement at seeing a tidewater glacier up close. A guest celebrated a milestone 90th birthday on this expedition, and she beamed with joy as we zoomed past floating blue ice to the face of the South Sawyer Glacier.
Ice drifted by in large masses with harbor seal mothers and pups hauled up on the ice and vocalizing to each other in the water. We watched in awe as the glacier cracked and calved into the water below with thunderous power and a glorious splash…it was the best of ways to celebrate the first day of our adventure!
To close out the day, our Global Explorers used pieces of glacier ice that we collected during our Zodiac tour to watercolor their memories of the trip of a lifetime.
Leigh holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a focus in international wildlife conservation and protected areas management and completed her undergraduate degree in Environm...
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Our day started early. Very early. So early that some people had not even gone to bed yet. We were awake because the sky was clear, and we were hoping for a light show. And what a light show we had. The northern lights, or aurora borealis, can happen at any time of the year, but the sky must be clear of clouds and dark enough to see them. In the Land of the Midnight Sun, and in the world’s largest temperate rainforest, those two conditions don’t often align. But we were treated to a spectacular show this morning as we headed towards the green-lit horizon. While vivid ribbons of green shifted and pulsed ahead, the Milky Way and Perseid meteor shower were shining brightly above us. After catching a few hours of rest, we roused ourselves in the daylight as we navigated the narrow length of Endicott Arm. Located in Tracy Arm-Fords Terror National Wilderness, Endicott Arm is a deep glacial fjord carved by ice. At the end of the arm sits Dawes Glacier. The glacier spills out of the Stikine Icefield, a solid lake of ice cradled high in the Coastal Mountains. The terminus, or face, of the glacier reaches the sea, which allowed us to cruise through chunks of ice towards the towering glacier on Zodiacs. Harbor seals swam between ice chunks, their shiny, round heads reflecting the clear morning light. Waterfalls spilled down sheer rock faces along the fjord. Our Zodiacs quickly transformed into toy boats in the immense scale of space around us. Back on-board National Geographic Venture , we retraced our route back out of Endicott Arm, out of Holkham Bay, and back into Stephens Passage. The afternoon sun was warm as we cruised south, and we soon found ourselves surrounded by dozens of humpback whales in Frederick Sound. The giant animals rose gently to the surface from their feeding dives, exhaling a twenty-foot column of steamy breath into the evening air. A beautiful sunset colored the sky as we journeyed on towards our next adventure. Photo caption: Northern lights. Photo by Shayne Sanders
Today we spent the day in the Southeast Alaskan fishing village of Petersburg. Fishing has been an important part of life for thousands of years by the Tlingit nation, and now with a Norwegian addition. Nearby ice from a tidewater glacier gave early European settlers the means to preserve fresh fish long enough to get their haul to Seattle. It proved a good business. Today, the fish travel by airline along with the visitors. In addition to flash-frozen fresh fish, salmon and other species are netted and processed in the canneries. Dungeness crabs are another local delicacy that we look forward to enjoying tonight. Our expedition leader offered many activities to choose from, including muskeg walks, flights over LeConte Glacier, and bike rides. The small, lovely town is welcoming.
We pulled anchor and began to navigate the Sergius Narrows early in the morning as we sailed toward Sitkoh Bay. Utilized by the Tlingit for thousands of years as a place to fish for salmon, Sitkoh Bay was then settled by August Bushman in the early 20th century. Right before we anchored National Geographic Quest , a brown bear was spotted at the end of the bay. A variety of hikes were offered as well as some Zodiac tours. Several of the groups got to watch a coastal brown bear fish for salmon in a small creek. The long hikers experienced the tidal flats and a few streams, and a few folks decided to learn about the ‘boot sucking mud’ that is a famous part of adventuring in Southeast Alaska. Today was the first experience for many in the Tongass National Rainforest, the largest temperate rainforest on the planet and one of the most intact ecosystems left in the United States. After dinner, we enjoyed a talk about bears, and whales were spotted in the moonlight. All in all, today was a great way to start our expedition.
