Alaska - Tracy Arm

Day six began at Tracy Arm, a fjord located about 45 miles south of Juneau. The fjord is about 30 miles long, 1/5 of it is covered in ice; the water is so deep (more than 1,200 feet) that our boat couldn't drop anchor. This day is tied for my favorite of the trip. We woke up in tiny Holkham Bay, surrounded by icebergs. We then took a skiff to the South Sawyer Glacier. This glacier starts in British Columbia and flows northwest for 31 miles to the head of Tracy Arm. Our excursion leader for the day told us that when she started with unCruise ten years ago, Holkham Bay was completed packed with ice, making the glacier inaccessible. Even just two weeks before we arrived, the bay was jammed with icebergs, so we were the first boat of the season to make it into the bay. The ability of our skiff pilot to avoid all of the icebergs, some as large as three-story buildings, was insane. The glacier itself was incredible and we even saw it calve. Even more impressive were the seals. Because of the geographic makeup of the fjord, orcas, which hunt seals, cannot navigate in Holkham Bay. As a result, it is a primary birthing area for seals.  We saw more than 50 mother and baby seals resting on icebergs - it was wild.  

Mother and baby seal.

The more brilliant the blue, the older the ice.

South Sawyer Glacier

That afternoon, we arrived at Sawyer Glacier and spent the afternoon kayaking around the bay. While we were kayaking, we were followed around by seals. Then, just as we arrived back at the boat, one of the crew members told us that there were mountain goats at one of the waterfalls. We headed over and then just looked on in awe as a mother goat guided her two kids across the sheer rocks around the waterfall. Ever time a baby made a misstep, rocks crashed down into the water around us - Lee couldn't watch, he was so nervous that one of the babies would take a fatal step.

Sawyer Glacier