Tracy Arm Wilderness
First thing this morning we crossed the “bar”, the submerged terminal moraine to enter the Tracy Arm Wilderness area. This deep fjord system is surrounded by super steep mountain sides and just breathtaking scenery. Before breakfast, the eagle eyes of Naturalist Gretchen Pederson spotted a coastal brown bear foraging in the intertidal. We almost could not believe our eyes as we watched it ever so carefully make its way up the steep edge and ever so gracefully nibble on the berries of devil’s club!
Then it was time to jump back into the Zodiacs for a tour in front of the Sawyer Glacier. We were fortunate enough to see one major calving, when a huge piece of ice came crashing down. In addition to seeing such a big piece fall, it was impressive to hear the noise it made which Native Americans call “White Thunder”.
In the afternoon we heard an excellent presentation by Naturalist David Stephens about Northwest Coast art and culture. It was fascinating to learn about form line design and see some of David’s exquisite bentwood boxes.
The last major event of the day was being surrounded by humpback whales. Their blows were like firework explosions everywhere we looked. We were fortunate to have several close looks as the animals slowly swam by us and even saw some animals breaching in the distance. What a fantastic way to end our time in Southeast Alaska!
