Nothing compares to waking up in Tracy Arm.
Granite walls rise abruptly from turquoise water to tower thousands of feet above a smattering of icebergs. Delicate waterfalls spill in sheets down the sheer cliffs. Only the sound of the wind competed with the splashing of water as cascades met the sea.
We rounded the final corner past Sawyer Island and gained our first view of South Sawyer glacier. We tiptoed through a maze of icebergs as far as possible before launching the expedition landing craft to take us further up the fjord. Icebergs of all sizes choked the narrow passage. We admired the beautiful ice sculptures the elements had crafted; towering spires, perfectly circular holes, and rounded cubes perched haphazardly on large floating tabletops of ice.
Hundreds of harbor seals make Tracy Arm their home in the summer. We were lucky to see mother harbor seals with their nursing pups during their only month together. Soon the pups will wean and leave their mothers, perhaps never seeing each other again. They rested on the flatter pieces of ice, lifting their heads to watch us with their large dark eyes or slipping silently into the water.
For long stretches South Sawyer glacier remained silent before suddenly grumbling or groaning. Cracking ice sounded like cannon fire in the narrow fjord. Parts of the face crumbled unpredictably in cacophonous rumbles and booms. The splashes from the falling ice rose hundreds of feet into the air.
We left the glacier to further explore Tracy Arm. At Williams Cove we had our first venture into the Tongass National rain forest or a paddle in the placid waters. Waterfalls, lush vegetation, and the rare sighting sunlight in Southeast Alaska gave us a hint of what’s in store for our week of adventure.
