A truly spectacular day of sun and awesome 'beauty' on an all day tour to Tracy Arm fjord and the S. Sawyer Glacier. To paraphrase the author of a book about Tracy Arm - "a journey to Tracy Arm isn't about a checklist of spotted species, or an accounting of facts and figures or miles on a map. Such details add context, but ultimate meaning lies in grasping the magnitude of the drama of creation and destruction cast on a scale so grand it must be felt rather than understood." Compare this glacier to the Mendenhall which ends in a lake accessible area close to Juneau.
The ice Charlie is holding was scooped up at the terminus of the glacier where we watched the events unfolding for over an hour. It's hard to imagine the age of this ice -- but not the age of the 'cutie' deckhand to the right of Charlie!
The images fill in the rest - 100s of seals and pups floating on ice flows, humpback whales feeding, black bears at water's edge, Bald Eagles fighting over a fish, steep glacial rock walls, spray from up close and familiar water falls, vivid blue ice floats,, the thunder and crack of the ice calving off the glacier and the glacier itself - 200' above the water and 900' below, 1/2 mile across and a constant work in progress. Spectacular day!!
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