Tracy Arm Fjord
We Complete The Glacier Trifecta!
So I'll start today's comments by saying it was an excellent day, and so many cool photos of what we saw. But I must add that in spite of how wonderful it was, it fell short of expectations we had from this identical excursion six years ago. But let's go with the positive view and go through the pics - at the conclusion I'll explain why it fell somewhat short of what we expected........ The day started as I stood on our balcony and watched the ship dock - seamlessly and without even the slightest bump. Just amazing. The small ship we boarded for our adventure had plenty of seating inside where it was comfortable and about a dozen seats on the observation deck up top (which were covered and some what sheltered) where it was MUCH colder with the wind whipping around. As we left the area around Junean we saw multiple waterfalls....I had some hot chocolate (with a marshmellow tossed in!)....and we stopped to spy a whale in one of the inlets.
As we entered Tracy Arm Fjord you could tell we were in a different area because of the ice that began to show up in the water as we cruised by. And we continued to see amazing waterfalls. The chunks of ice were massive - the photos do not do them justice.
Soon we came to THE waterfall highlight of the trip. We remembered this from our trip here six years ago and were as thrilled as Captain Sarah pulled the bow of the boat right up to the rock edge of the water. Of course we posed for pics! We passed more stunning waterfalls as we got closer and closer to entering the highlight portion of the fjord.
We rounded the bend and there was Sawyer Glacier. We couldn't wait to get up close and personal. I said to Kim that seeing that ship amongst all the ice was encouraging that we too could navigate our way to become up close and personal!
But as we got close to the ice field, the other boat was on it's way out and I thought we were just waiting for it to clear. But they had radioed that the ice was closing in and they were having a difficult time finding safe passage out, so our Captain told us it would not be safe to get any closer. I was "glad" that it seemed most of the guests did not know what they were missing by not being able to get up close to this amazing glacier. And I'm sure most were thrilled when soon we were very close to the "North Glacier" segment of Sawyer Glacier. The "North Glacier" isn't as big, and isn't as colorful....but it is massive and it IS a glacier, let's remember. Good photos of it sealed the deal on our visiting three amazing glaciers on this trip! And as we left the fjord we saw every more massive chunks of ice. Just WOW.
So to compare.....and why we were so excited to repeat this excursion. In 2019 we did get to round the bend and see the Sawyer Glacier up close......compare this year to then:
Tomorrow is the next-to-last day of the cruise. We love Ketchikan as we will enjoy cruising the waters around the lodge there and enjoy all you can eat Dungeness crab!
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